Breaking All The Rules
by amiori-and-sherii-fluff
Summary: Hanyou...forever meant to be confined in a world of loneliness...bound by cruel rules for a lifetime...but when one girl finds a friend in the school's rejected Hanyou, her world, and the world of those around her, will change forever. InuXKag! Please R
1. The Hanyou

**CHAPTER ONE: THE HANYOU**

_Nothing escapes amber._

_It becomes trapped inside, preserved forever, even as a memory. Pleasant or painful, it is all caught._

_Until it dies, it will be forever within the cool stone._

_Pain is no exception. When the world is seen through amber, everything feels like hope is gone. With memories, pain can also be caught and remembered. Fear can also be trapped within, causing the bearer of such beauty to feel lost._

_Amber eyes see so much prejudice…_

_Until there is someone to heal it all away._

The school population was busy bustling through the halls. The sounds of locker doors slamming was heard as an echoing rumble. It seemed that everyone had someone to turn to, even if it was just an acquaintance that had only just made their presence known to engage in frivolous talk.

But among the crowds, someone was all alone.

A boy stood, about sixteen years of age, and yet bearing the knowledge that one would never comprehend even if they surpassed him, proceeding to quietly open his locker. Within his eyes of amber, an image of something nobody besides him would ever keep rested. His beautiful silver hair fell over his shoulders, and upon his head were two triangular dog ears, white and soft as falling snow.

He was InuYasha, a total outsider, rejected…a freak, the devil's child, the pathetic Hanyou…

The Hanyou…

Even though the world was, in a scarcely noted way, "peaceful", what with the demons and humans living in perfect harmony, those words didn't mean anything to the half-demon.

…Because only the humans and the demons were mentioned.

Not _Hanyous_.

Hanyous were the dirt in the world. A thing gone wrong. An abomination, a total mistake…

At the aftermath of the war against the two opposing forces, a swift truce had been drawn up. At that time, the fact that some of those forces had come together in unity, creating what now was known as a Hanyou, was almost not even perceived. When it grew, it was noticed, and everyone was torn apart. The blame went onto the products of the love of the two forces, not the creators. Hanyous were a sign of the devil. They were forbidden, and usually were the cause for disownment. Everyone was terrified.

That is, until, the Hanyou rules were put in effect.

The rules caused utter joy to the world. Everyone immediately took action and violence to a higher level.

The way InuYasha was treated, he was forced to believe that all he ever wanted was never going to be his. Not acceptance, always feeling pain…and never being loved…these dreams had been abandoned so long ago.

Poor InuYasha had accepted the fact that he was alone.

He would occasionally try fighting back, but that wouldn't ever work.

They were just too strong.

The school was INFESTED with rumors and Hanyou haters and punishers. There was even a hallway that was so bad; InuYasha could never use it. They called it the "Hanyou's worst nightmare".

As the door opened, several notes fell out. He sighed. He picked them up, and placed them in a nearby trash can. He knew what they said. The painful insults had been said to him all his life.

_The trash can has less trash in it than my locker with threats_, thought InuYasha.

He was always being abused, teased, insulted…a huge list.

InuYasha shut his locker, and began to walk down the hall. People pointed at him, laughing, sneering, and exchanging pitiful glances…everyone laughed shallowly, gossip and rumors spreading through the halls.

InuYasha didn't care.

A demon slammed him onto a locker as he passed through. Deep pain shot through InuYasha's side as the locker and he collided.

"Outta my way, lady!" the demon said as he smirked at the hurt Hanyou.

Anger coursed through his veins as he saw the marks left on his arm from the side of the locker. There were several slits of blood, and some of the skin had been cut. InuYasha brushed his shoulder furiously. After a while, it still hurt mildly, but he continued to amble past the sea of teenagers to his first period class.

InuYasha sat down at a desk where there was no one else, and about five seconds after he did, the bell rung.

"You're LATE, InuYasha Taisho." Mr. Umide sneered. Everyone smothered their silent laughter.

_This just isn't fair!_ InuYasha wanted to say, _--I got here seconds before the stupid bell rung, and now you're telling me I'm LATE?_ InuYasha merely opened his textbook and said "I'm sorry…" but inside, he was fuming with anger.

"Today we are learning a way to solve algebraic expressions. First question: 2x-(4)+7y would equal to..." Mr. Umide paused for someone who knew the answer.

InuYasha wrote down some notes and raised his hand.

He could only plead mentally for him to actually answer, because he knew the rule for Hanyous in the classroom. No talking out loud. The punishments for disobeying the rules were harsh. REALLY harsh.

"Koga?"

"Umm…I didn't raise my hand, sir…I dunno the answer…" said Koga, thinking hard.

_Pick me dammit!_

"Kagura?"

"Dunno, don't ask me!"

_Why the hell won't you pick me?_ InuYasha desperately wished that the Hanyou rules weren't so strict so that he could just answer the question.

A large demon interrupted Kagura and Mr. Umide's argument, reading the answer off of InuYasha's notes.

"That is correct." said Mr. Umide.

That wasn't fair! InuYasha looked down at his paper. The correct answer, HIS answer!...It had been stolen by some lowlife demon that had read his notes…

InuYasha didn't bother to raise his hand for the next questions. He just sat there, writing notes on the subjects that were discussed. He would go home at the end of the day, handle his job, and study extra hard that night.

The periods slipped through InuYasha's fingers like quicksand until the annoying bell of "freedom" finally rang. InuYasha sighed, and walked out of the stupid school building. He sighed as he passed the beautiful houses on the way to the convenience store in which he worked in. Then it came back. A scary fragment of a memory of him in a house, all alone…with that creepy…he shuddered. It was so…bizarre…not worth remembering…

He had work to do.

A lot.

The damn Hanyou rules clearly stated that Hanyous had to work after hours for one hour, cleaning up. They earned a little bit of extra money by doing that. About 3 to 5 dollars…

At work, InuYasha got 15 dollars, which was 10 dollars less than his fellow employees did. (As soon as he had been admitted to his crap hole of a job, everyone got a raise.)

It was still enough money to pay for InuYasha's tuition, but not enough to really support himself. He had only one shirt, which was a bit too large and two pairs of baggy pants, which he always washed thoroughly in the mornings to get the bloodstains off. And shoes were way too expensive, so his were very small…And it was so hard to find food…When he couldn't afford it, he would scavenge in the depths of a forest, or a trash can, and if he ever got too desperate, he was forced to beg. He had never gotten anything by that, so he did it as little as possible.

InuYasha stepped in through the automatic doors of the store, sighing as he went to the employee's changing room. He changed into his boring white shirt, black pants, and a black. He then hesitated to put on a black cap over his dog ears.

_Hey. Maybe they won't notice_. He thought to himself.

**Are You KIDDING? That's the MILLIONTH time you've ever said that, even to yourself. PATHETIC. How the hell are you supposed to be tough when you're hiding under a stupid unnoticeable hat? Like I said seconds before: PA-THE-TIC.**

"That voice…" whispered InuYasha.

"Who are you talking to?" asked a man curiously, sneering at the "disease".

"Oh. I said something? I didn't notice. Sorry…" InuYasha blushed in embarrassment.

_You're not in a good mood today…Listen, you have to stop talking to me. It's gonna get me into trouble._

**Aww! Is the Hanyou scared? It's going to get US into trouble. Not just you. I am a part of you. You are a part of me. I'm just a part of you that hasn't been truly revealed yet. Call me your split personality. You'll meet me very soon. I've been with you before that crazy ma--**

_DON'T. SAY. ANYTHING!_ InuYasha shut his eyes.

The voice laughed.

A cruel, soft laugh.

**Fine. Coward. You think you're so tough? Why are you worried about the past?**

_I'M NOT A COWARD!_ InuYasha defended himself.

The voice was silent now.

InuYasha sighed in relief, and left the changing room. He was instantly dragged from the stupid high school abuse to a boring store job that involved walking around the aisles, looking for someone who needed help with something, and scanning labels.

There was usually a two-partner-switch thing going on. It was something like first one person walked the aisles, while the other one scanned, and then they switched positions.

The people who created the Hanyou rules had thought of everything, haven't they?

Hanyous had to do it all. No switch. No lunch break.

Not that there were much Hanyous left…

About three years before, a law had been passed that any Hanyou born from then on would be drowned instantly.

InuYasha had been liberated of that horror, because he was already 13 when the law had been put into action.

Because of that, his parents were thought of as criminals.

His parents had done the most unspeakable thing the world could ever think of.

InuYasha was the disgusting and sinful THING that came to be by his parents.

And they were killed, no, murdered, for doing such a horrible thing.

Just by having him before the law had even been thought up. He was left alone to deal with the world's despicable beatings, the law only making things worse.

His parents had brought something evil, alien, just plain DIFFERENT into the world. They were hated by all.

If they were still alive, they would be treated almost worse than InuYasha.

InuYasha's worst fear was seeing his mother go through the beatings, the insults, the death threats…she had been so frail, so delicate, so beautiful…His father would be feared by all, though. Everyone would try to get out of his way.

InuYasha closed his eyes, and tried not to remember the painful last memory of his parents.

They had been so sweet…so innocent, understanding, and caring.

His brother too. Although they had fought a lot, he had always apologized.

And now they were all gone.

And had left a bad thing that should have been abandoned at birth alive…

A THING.

A hideous, dog eared punching bag.

He was walking down the aisles. No one approached him; everyone seemed to know where things were.

Either that or they didn't want a Hanyou to help them.

Well, at least he still got paid.

That was enough for him.

He began to walk down the spice aisle. It was usually his favorite aisle (besides the pasta aisle that had ramen in it) because the sweet smell of cinnamon, basil, oregano…it dulled his pain…it took away the horrible scent of pain.

He stayed there, inhaling the sweet smells, when something caught his eye.

A girl.

He had never seen such a girl. Her long, midnight-tainted black hair surrounded a beautiful pale face. She was as tall as his shoulder. Her head was facing front. She had her eyes closed, and seemed to be concentrating on something.

InuYasha's heart pounded. Something about this girl…so beautiful…so soft…

**Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump…**

He just had to call out to her.

"Excuse me…!" InuYasha called.

The girl calmly opened her eyes and smiled. She stared at him.

To her, he was gorgeous, unique; with long hair, tainted by starlight. It was so pure…like a clear crystal prism; the store's light was making his hair shine. It cascaded down his back like a waterfall. A white waterfall... His face was perfect; not a blemish in sight, and it was shaped beautifully.

But…

…there was something in his eyes…a LOOK…

…A look that completely pained her heart.

A look of fear that would permanently be etched in those beautiful amber orbs, for nothing escapes amber.

The barrier around the poor Hanyou's tormented heart was melting as he stared at her.

Oh wow, her eyes made him lose it. They were large and full of curiosity, and were a deep dark mahogany brown color.

So deep…like an ocean that you would fall into.

So deep…

"Hello. Can…may I help you with anything?" he asked, knowing the harsh answer that was to come.

"Um…yes please…there's something I need from that shelf, but I can't reach it…" she said, pointing to a small container of cinnamon higher than she could reach. She tried hard, standing on the tips of her toes, reaching, and almost grasping the container. InuYasha reached up at the same time for the container, and their hands softly made contact.

The poor Hanyou's face was red with embarrassment. He looked over at her face and it was also crimson. She was smiling. After an awkward moment, he could not help but smile back. She began to laugh softly. To hi, it was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard. It was so innocent…

He looked up and saw that their hands were still touching each other. He pulled away rapidly, still holding the cinnamon. His heart rose up to his ears and down to his stomach. He felt sick for a moment…and in pain. What was this…?

She looked a bit surprised when he pulled away. "I'm sorry…" he said, the sick feeling remaining inside him. The girl smiled, and said, "It's okay…There's really nothing to be sorry about…"

"Y-yeah…" _Yeah there is…_ InuYasha was confused. Then it hit him. Obviously this girl had no idea what he was…yet. He suddenly felt dirty. If he didn't tell, he would be cheating her. If he did…well since when had rejection been something new? She would find out sooner or later…

"I'm Kagome Higurashi." she said sweetly.

"Um…I-InuYasha…" the boy muttered.

Kagome (as he now knew) smiled yet again, this time seeming to savor the name. "InuYasha…I like that name." She smiled.

He sighed with relief, but the feeling STILL lingered. He gave her the cinnamon and their hands touched slightly as she grasped the small container. She smiled very warmly as she held it. "Thank you…"

She looked up at him. "Hey…I think I saw you at my school today…Do you go to Akari?"

InuYasha nodded, surprised. He had never seen _her_ around. …Maybe because he never really wanted to tell them apart. He had no friends, he had never had friends, and fate screamed at him everyday saying he never would.

"I have to go. I'll see you tomorrow at school!"

He shook his head, and she was almost at the end of the aisle. Her long hair was flowing behind her. She looked back, and he looked away, blushing madly. She laughed, and continued her way out of the aisle. When no footsteps were heard, InuYasha turned to the end of the aisle, and began to slowly walk into the next row of condensed items, looking for someone who needed help.

She hadn't been scared or…well; basically, she didn't have any of the usual reactions when they looked at him. He was the last thing that they wanted to see. But…no one had ever been so kind to him. This girl…she had put him at a loss for words. The feeling he was experiencing…what word could possibly describe the wave of emotion that was passing through him? Every corner he saw her gorgeous hair, her beautiful face…her hand…

They had touched. The remembrance of the touch of her hand made his skin tingle and his body numb. Had a camera been watching? Did he break one of the Hanyou rules? Would he be arrested? The fear was overcome by something else. He began to feel tired. When was the last time that he had slept? He was always up late studying for exams. He usually got home at 9:00 p.m.

Sleep…

He needed to capture sleep desperately.

Wait. He needed to work. He needed to pass school.

Seeing that once again nobody wanted to be helped by the likes of him, he went over to his favorite aisle.

Ramen…

He looked at the collection of ramen cups…so many, and they were all so tasty…but he was broke, and could only dream. _God is torturing me. _He thought. He sighed. _Maybe if I work harder I'll get an extra dollar…And then I can buy ramen…_

Then he realized the flaw in his plan. No microwave—no ramen. He thought he was going to die. This was so not fair, and a ramen restaurant did not actually cost cheaply.

The closing hours soon came, and InuYasha had to work for one hour more. He sighed. _Feh! They left me a mess to deal with_! He thought as he got the broom.

_Why me?_

The employees all sneered, and threw more litter on the floor, just to add onto the poor Hanyou's burden.

"Why don't you sweep yourself up too? You're trash too!" a demon employee snickered as he threw a styrofoam cup at the ground.

It wasn't only the employees that made him clean up their trash. The customers would purposely litter the store with their trash, just shrugging it off, and saying, "Oh well, the Hanyou will clean it up after hours anyway."

"Why me," wasn't really that necessary to think.

The reason it was him was mainly because he was the half-breed, the outsider, the HANYOU.

And the damn Hanyou rules…

InuYasha rapidly scrubbed and swept the store until it was almost sparkling. He stared into the empty aisles.

It looked so…eerie…an empty silence…

Like the house where the murderer was…

He shook his head when the horrible memory took hold of him. Like a nightmare had gripped him, he was breaking out in cold sweat. It was that terrifying for him.

InuYasha continued to work hard on making the store clean.

Soon, the clock read 8:47, and it was time for InuYasha to change into his casual clothes and head for home.

"Here's your money," the boss said nonchalantly, straightening his tie and handing InuYasha a 5-dollar bill. He immediately snatched his hand away from the 5-dollar bill as soon as the Hanyou laid his claws softly on it, as if the boy were harboring a deadly contagious affliction or something MUCH worse. "Thank you Mr. Aenaisago!" InuYasha said courteously as he swung his backpack over his shoulder.

He practically ran out of the store.

**END OF CHAPTER ONE…**


	2. New Friendship

**CHAPTER TWO: NEW FRIENDSHIP**

_A.N: I want to thank you for reviewing and viewing this story period. I had this on an old account, and took it off for a year…In fact, I kind of rewrote it to fit what I have experienced this year…something told us we had to rewrite it…heheheh…Destiny I guess. –AmiOri and Sherii_

'Home' was a vacant lot behind a 7-11 store.

Yeah, it was behind a 7-11 store. Pretty weird, huh?

His bed was a soft, grassy, earthen mattress surrounded by beautiful yellow flowers. He kept himself warm with a bed sheet that he had found. His lamplight came from the stars as they shone brightly in the night sky. But today, he had bought a flashlight at the store that he worked at. He was secluded and hidden by the trees that surrounded the lot.

He laid his backpack on the soft grass.

His home.

The only TRUE home he had ever considered he had since he was 5.

He looked in his bag for the notes that he had taken for math. "Alright," he told himself. He settled on the earthen ground, and began to read the problems, and writing down random math equations that came to mind. He solved all of them, and at about 2:46, he went to sleep, one side of his face pressing against the earth-covered ground so that he inhaled the smell of dirt.

Earlier, he had set his watch alarm for 4:00 a.m. so that he could get to school early. It would be quite a walk, but he could always run. He could run as fast as a speeding bullet, and never ran out of energy unless some demons had beaten him up badly or he was sick.

The hours crawled past like a small cat walking gracefully on a narrow wall. InuYasha had no notion of anyone hiding behind a tree, watching him, laughing that evil laugh just as he had ten years ago…

He was busy having a flashback of his life in one of his dreams…

It was warped, and had some white sumi-e on the edges.

A long memory that he couldn't get rid of…

_A five-year-old InuYasha was running around in his fenced-up front yard, playing happily with a ball. _

_A shady man wearing a black sweatshirt with a hood covering his face and blue jeans walked up to the fence, and rested his arms on it, putting his chin on his arms. _

_InuYasha ran close to the fence to retrieve the ball. "You're havin' fun, aren't you?" the man smiled coldly. _

_InuYasha looked up from his crouch at the man. He smiled, and continued to play._

_"Why are you so happy?" he asked InuYasha. _

_InuYasha smiled wider, and said, "Tomorrow's my birthday!" The man laughed. "…Is that so…?" His evil grin increased._

_"Yup!" InuYasha bounced the ball on his knees._

_"INUYASHA!" A woman's voice arose from inside the house. InuYasha could see his mother through the transparent sliding door. The door opened, and Izayoi, his mother, stepped out. "InuYasha, I told you not to speak to strangers!" she scolded. "It's not wise." _

_"Okay mommy!" InuYasha ran inside. Izayoi looked at the man for a minute. She then stepped inside._

_"Heh…you should have listened to your mother, pup…" the man smirked, and departed from the front yard of the Taisho family as he chuckled the laugh that would stay engraved in InuYasha's mind forever…that cold, maniacal, EVIL laugh…_

**BEEPEEPEEPEEP! **

**BEEPEEPEEPEEP! **

**BEEPEEPEEPEEP! **

InuYasha rose up instantly. _Damn flashback… _he thought as he tried to erase the memory of his childhood that he had just seen.

He stretched, and ran over to the lake nearby with a small towel and clothes to change into. It was in the forest near the vacant lot, and it seemed like InuYasha was the only one who knew where it was.

He stretched once more at the lake as the dark blue sky became tinted with a lighter color.

He looked at his reflection in the lake. Like a mirror, it showed that one side of his face on his cheek was smudged with dirt. The clothes that he was wearing needed cleaning too.

The lake was cool, and soothed InuYasha's body as he relaxed, bathing himself. He felt a small sensation of pleasure, although he wished that the water were a little bit warmer.

The same wave of emotion that he had felt the other day while that girl, Kagome, was massaging his ears…

Twenty minutes later, InuYasha was dressed in his change of clothes. He had bought some detergent and was washing his clothes with the pristine waters of the lake.

He was finished washing them, and he hung them on a branch to dry. He then began furiously rubbing the dirt smudges off of his face.

Many people would think this primitive.

But this was a fight for survival.

A life which involved a person bonding with nature and using it to assist him in daily life.

InuYasha's life.

This was InuYasha's life.

This was what he did every single day. He had to do it otherwise he would die. He had no living relatives, and a foster home was out of the question… He had no choice but to live on his own accord.

He sighed as he watched the water drip off of the shirt drying on the tree branch. A butterfly fluttered and gently landed on InuYasha's ear.

Everything was so…

…PEACEFUL…

Yeah, that's the word. PEACEFUL.

But of course, usually, peacefulness is ended by a sudden "bump in the road".

In this case, it was another thing that is necessary in youth.

School.

InuYasha's living nightmare. No, to better describe it, you'd have to say "InuYasha's living HELL". InuYasha had officially been the "school reject" the minute that he stepped in through the doors for the first time. They had all paused and stared. Some looked at the Hanyou as if he were from outer space and he was about to rip out their living hearts and eat them as they throbbed gruesomely in his hand. Others were just admiring their new punching bag…

The only reason he went was because of three people.

#1- Mrs. Amai was a sweet person. She was the principal of Akari high school. InuYasha thought, _Aku ni wa shinenzyo high school is what it SHOULD be called… _Aku ni wa shinenzyo means "Dying isn't easy" in Japanese. InuYasha knew that, which is why he used it to nickname the Akari high school.

Well, anyway, Mrs. Amai was a kind, gentle, beautiful woman. Mrs. Amai had never made him tardy, and she prevented the teachers from flunking him purposely.

#2- his mother. His mother had always wanted to see him get a diploma, for when she was his age, she had never received it. She had been expelled for being Inu no Taisho's girlfriend. She was human, and he was a demon, and their love was forbidden.

So she had always encouraged him to go to school, and now that she was dead, he wanted to graduate more than anything now.

#3- his father. He had always wanted to see his son do something honorable to his kind, and graduating was one of them.

He hoped, day by day, that they would be watching him in heaven, watching him succeed.

InuYasha sighed as he walked to his locker.

He opened it, and saw three notes, which he disposed of immediately. He sighed. Just another day like the others before had been.

InuYasha turned his head, and was staring into brown chocolate eyes.

"Kagome!" InuYasha was so surprised to see the girl that he had helped smiling gently, her eyes opening windows into the light he had been taken away from so long ago.

"Hi…" she softly said.

"H-Hi…um…" a profound blush rose upon the bridge of his nose.

InuYasha was scared. What if she _was_ planning something? …The security of yesterday was gone. Breaking the silence, his mind wondered constantly the same thing…What if she was just one of them…?

No, she had to be…she was a human, like all the others. Why…why would _she_ be any different?

He couldn't trust her, no matter how much he wanted to believe that she wasn't like them…but life had taught him that loneliness was pain, pain was bliss, and scars were there forever. He was not about to bring even more pain and scars…but could he really live longer alone?

In a sweet voice, she began to thank him once more for helping her the other night. But her sweet soft voice dimmed away as he remembered something about a nightmare he had dreamed of forgetting…No matter how hard he wished it all away, every night, THAT NIGHT replayed over and over again in his mind…and he saw HIM…the bastard that had changed his life for the worse…

_5-year-old InuYasha woke up on his birthday, ready to come out and celebrate. It would be a normal, beautiful day._

_Sunlight streaked out and softly kissed him on the face to wake him. He slowly opened his eyes and greeted the day._

_His day…_

**Why was he remembering this now? **

_He stretched, changed into a red shirt and khaki shorts, and put on his slippers. He ran to the door, and slowly creaked it open._

**Why are you opening that door? InuYasha thought worriedly. It would have been much safer in your room…**

_He began to tiptoe downstairs to the kitchen, where his parents and brother would be._

_A very happy birthday!_

**No, you idiot! NOT a happy birthday! Go back upstairs! He knew he couldn't change the past, but he was too scared to see it again and too scared to wish it away…**

_He was on the sixth to last step when he saw blood staining the carpet._

_Blood._

_Blood._

_BLOOD!_

**No…**

_Fresh blood._

**NO…**

_Disgusting, yet horribly FAMILIAR black-red liquid, staining the carpet, the memory of it slowly seeping into the child's heart…_

"InuYasha…?"

InuYasha had broken away from the horrible memory of his childhood by Kagome's voice.

"What happened? I-is something wrong?" Kagome asked worriedly. "You don't have a fever…are you sick?" She gently put a hand to his forehead, and her cheeks were red with embarrassment…a mirror of his own... His forehead was slightly wet and that was when she saw a scar on his cheek. It showed through the blush…it was not large, in fact it was rather small, but its appearance couldn't help but launch her into a world of questions. She gasped, but hid her sudden curiosity with a look of pure reassurance

InuYasha stared at Kagome's face.

"I don't get sick," he said, trying to reassure her.

He saw four demons, staring at the couple, grinning menacingly.

"Why is the Hanyou freak with that girl?"

"Does she even know what he is? Chh. Just wait. As soon as she finds out, there'll be fireworks."

"Stupid half-breed, he'll probably infect her with his H.M.D."

"What does H.M.D stand for?"

"Hanyou Mental Disease!"

InuYasha winced, and looked down shamefully as he heard the comments and looked anxiously towards Kagome. She turned to him and looked sad through the gentle smile. He winced as another wave of whispers reached his delicate ears.

She didn't know what was coming.

He realized that it would hurt Kagome, or ANYONE who got close to him at that matter, to be with him, even for a minute.

If Kagome had hit him, or hurt him in any physical way, she would be like everyone, and she'd be okay with the school. But she was categorizing herself as something more, and if she didn't hurt him or anything like that, she would only get _herself_ hurt.

InuYasha had only just met her, but he couldn't get a girl like Kagome hurt. It would be almost as bad as death. She was so innocent…so gentle and kind…he couldn't bear to see her suffer…

"Inu…? Are you okay?" She touched his arm softly.

"Go away…" InuYasha said softly, trying to prevent himself from drawing more attention than he already was. He immediately looked away from Kagome's face. She looked hurt.

"I'm sorry…but…it…we can't do this. Don't you think it's weird…to be with someone…someone like me…? Just look at me Kagome…I'm not like you…and besides, you…you still have a chance…out there…I don't want to…" He was stalling, and Kagome knew it. She tried to console him, reaching out to his arm in a form of understanding, but before she could, InuYasha turned away and positioned his eyes to the floor. He closed his eyes and whispered, "Worthless…A Hanyou…a damn Hanyou…"

His right ear twitched as he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Huh?" He looked up. "Ka-Kagome?"

"…I know we just met…but…I…you're always so alone…I thought that…" she sighed. There were tears in her eyes.

_Oh no…I made someone else cry…_ InuYasha was flustered. He hated when he made people cry for him. Of course, there had been only three people so far that would steep to such a level…

His mom, Mrs. Amai, and Kagome…

Were they just overly sentimental, or did they really mean it?

But he was curious. What _did_ she think would happen…?

"I want to…" her eyes were fixated on the small scar on his cheek…but she looked away…deep into his eyes, beautiful amber, trapping her own reflection into a memory…the pain that scared her and inspired her, giving her a little bit of confidence to go on…

"I want to be your friend…" Kagome shyly looked up at his stern, beautiful face and into his amber-colored eyes. It seemed as if she was staring through his façade, into his real terrified expression. She once again hesitated to ask about that scar. How had he gotten it…? Why had he gotten it? Was it the only one…?

InuYasha turned crimson red and could have died of shock.

"What…What's wrong…?" Kagome was not expecting this reaction. _It's like no one ever asked him to be their friend…_Realization stopped her thoughts and her heart trembled. …_Maybe he's…never had a friend…never had anyone…half human, half demon…what if he was _always_ alone?_ A wave of silence cleared the inside of her soul, and she felt suddenly empty.

To be so alone all through life…the scar…the pain trapped within every gaze of his beautiful eyes…

He suddenly felt cold inside. The same feeling from the other day had come back to him…it…it hurt…so much...what was this pain? He tried to hide this sudden feeling and rid his façade of any trace of it.

InuYasha gave her a small, reassuring smile.

"…Thanks…" she smiled back.

A stranger was lurking behind the shadows, watching them.

_**Heh…the pup sure has grown. Who's the girl? His soulmate? Heh. Doubt it…**_ The stranger gave an odd chuckle.

_**As the creator of the Hanyou rules, I do think that this'll be fun…**_

**END OF CHAPTER TWO…**

_Please review! I don't mean to sound urgent, but I want to know what you really think of this. It gets a lot fluffier soon! -AmiOri_


	3. What if she's Different?

**Sherii and AmiOri :**** first off we would like to thank our reviewers**

**Pankakekitty2491**

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**THANK YOU!**

**Now on to the story**

**CHAPTER THREE: WHAT IF SHE'S DIFFERENT?**

"I want to be your friend…" Kagome shyly looked up at his stern, gentel face and into his amber-colored eyes. It seemed as if she was staring through his façade, into his real terrified expression.

InuYasha turned crimson red and could have died of shock.

"What's wrong? It's like no one ever asked you to be their friend!" Kagome was not expecting this reaction.

InuYasha didn't know what to say. _Okay… This person that I barely know just asks me to be her friend. Plus, the person's a GIRL! What the hell does she want from me?_

**InuYasha. You shouldn't trust this girl.**

_That damn voice again…_

**You shouldn't. She might be a stalker after all. She might want ANYTHING from you. She could be a demon in disguise as a human. Never trust ANYBODY!**

_But what if she's different?_

**NONE OF THEM ARE DIFFERENT! They're ALL the same! They're all damn ungrateful wenches; they all want the same thing! Don't ever trust them with anything! They'll stab you on the back if you even dare to…ESPECIALLY if you're a Hanyou.**

_SHUT UP! She's not like those at school!_

**Silence, fool! You're a Hanyou, and speaking out of place is punishable!**

_SHUT UP!_

**YOU SHUT UP!**

_YOU!_

**YOU!**

_GRRR!_

**That wench…don't trust her!**

Leave Kagome out of this!

**Ooh! Could it be that the Hanyou is lovestruck?**

…

**Hmmph. You know the rules.**

_Rule number 4: Hanyous aren't allowed to have any special relationships with girls…_

**And…?**

…_Rule number 5: There is to be no forms of reproduction whatsoever…_

**She'll get hurt. It'll be our fault.**

_It's not like we'll get THAT far!_

**…**

"InuYasha? You're being awfully quiet, y'know?" Kagome's voice once again snapped him out of his mental conversation.

"HUH?" InuYasha blushed as he was abruptly smacked back into reality.

"I was just asking if I could go to your house. Is something wrong?" Kagome asked.

"Nothing…are you SURE you want to go to my home?" he asked nervously.

She heard a tone in his voice that told her he didn't want her to go at all. "…Well, I respect your privacy, so…I won't go." She smiled, and turned to leave.

"Kagome…?" InuYasha called out, extending a hand to her. She turned curiously. "What, InuYasha?"

"…See you at school on Monday…?" InuYasha asked weakly.

Kagome smiled. "See you at school on Monday."

"Bye Kagome…"

"Bye InuYasha!"

InuYasha watched her as she walked to her home.

He sighed. What was it about this girl…?

**I think it's love…**

_Shut up._

InuYasha's shift at the convenience store was through, and he was going "home".

_Yeah right._

_If you can call an abandoned lot a home. _

He put his pack more over his shoulder, and jerked a little to the left as he did that. He was thinking the same thing as his split personality self was.

**Will she even care where you live?**

_I don't want her to feel bad for me…_

**…**

InuYasha jumped the fence to the lot. He landed agilely, like a cat, on his feet.

He walked over to the place where he had camped out since he was 12.

He saw that it was pitch black outside. He could barely see his hand in front of his face. _Has it ever been so dark…?_ he asked himself.

He remembered when he was a little kid, and he would cup the stars in his hands. He then had this urge to do it again. He just shrugged it off and went back to his studies.

Soon, he fell asleep, performing the ritual that he performed every day.

InuYasha was having a dream, a nightmare, more like it, another flashback…

_He stared at the blood, the red liquid staining the carpet. It could be punch… InuYasha thought. But it was too red for punch…_

_Too dark…_

_InuYasha brought his small nose to the carpet, and sniffed it._

_It was definitely blood._

_A shiver ran down his spine as he inhaled the strong, almost sweet and metallic._

_Where was his mother?_

_Where was his father?_

_Where was Sesshomaru?_

_Where was everybody?_

_Was this a joke?_

_A mean, hurtful practical JOKE?_

_InuYasha took off his slippers and stepped on the bloody carpet._

_Still fresh…so red…staining his bare feet…_

_He slowly proceeded into the kitchen, shivering in an unexplainable fear._

_Empty._

_No one was in the kitchen singing "Happy Birthday, InuYasha". _

_Maybe they were hiding…_

_He hoped._

_His small puppy ears picked up a soft, deadly chuckle. It couldn't POSSIBLY be his dad. His father's laughter wasn't so…_

_Wasn't so CRUEL…_

_InuYasha could feel his heart pounding faster. He felt so weird. His chest ached._

_Where were his parents?_

_"Mommy?" he whispered._

_No one answered._

_"Dad?" _

_Still, silence echoed through the corridors of InuYasha's mind._

_InuYasha heard the heartless laugh again. He decided to follow it. Against his own will, he followed it. It was as if something was controlling him, an unknown force of some kind. The smell of something evil flowed past his tender nose. Evil aura and dark green evanescent miasma flowed in coils from the direction that the laugh emerged._

_InuYasha's little heart beat against his chest so hard, he could hear it resonate in his ears. _

_He saw a trail of blood flowing the opposite way that the laugh was coming from._

_The same direction, but the opposite way…_

_The laugh was coming from his parent's room. InuYasha hid behind the door, and looked through the crack near the ground. _

_He saw his mother's beautiful ebony hair, flowing on the ground like a sea. His father's hair was the same as InuYasha's: silver and long. It flowed from the bed, and lay next to hers. _

_His father's hair was stained with the same crimson liquid that stained the carpet. _

_A stranger stood towering over them, laughing, and casting a shadow over them._

_**This man sounds bad. He smells evil too…**__ InuYasha thought as he stared at the shadow as a foot came to view and stepped on his mother's hair. _

_There was a glimpse of something shiny and dangerous on the ground. The man's horrible mirth only seemed to increase as everything happened._

_**Why is the bad man laughing…?**__ InuYasha was not sure, but the reason was unclear, and couldn't possibly be any good…_

InuYasha woke up dripping in cold sweat. What he had just seen didn't scare him very much, but what was about to come scared the living crud out of him.

Did he HAVE to see the rest?

It was pure torture.

He didn't WANT to see it happen. Once was bad enough.

Well, it was Saturday, sort of a retreat for InuYasha. A vacation…But how exactly would he spend his vacation? Well, for one thing, he needed sleep. And he could always set his alarm for four, so that he could get to his job at the convenience store early.

It would be okay…

But he wished that someone would come and save him from this never-ending ritual…

He decided to sleep again, but this time, no bad flashbacks came to him, just a little dog-eared boy reaching for the stars…

Kagome sighed as she walked through the crowded sidewalk. She tried to avert her mind from thoughts of the troubled boy to pointless window shopping. But that only worsened her bout of curiosity.

What had made him so scared of her? What could she have possibly done to earn so little trust?

She was so used to being surrounded by friends, she could never imagine the loneliness he hid…

Why had he hidden it?

Was it such a crime?

She thought a while more, her mind distracted completely from her gazing at things she didn't even want. _Hanyou…_ She remembered her father, when he had still been alive, had said some unjust things about them. Every time something bad happened, it had always been the fault of the damn Hanyous. Overpopulation problems: blame it on the Hanyous. No milk at the supermarket: A Hanyou had taken it! Simple as pie.

Was it all really that bad?

She now began seeing it through the eyes of a Hanyou and realized that all of that was cruel…

InuYasha was sleeping.

He was enjoying a nice dream, when something interrupted it.

His dreams suddenly shifted to one of his least favorite topic: That horrible day on his birthday ten years ago…

_The evil, deranged man chuckled menacingly, as small InuYasha peeked at him through the crack on the floor._

_"Hehehe…Where's the birthday boy…?" the man asked softly in a dangerous raspy tone. His speech was slurred, as if he had drunken alcohol. _

_No one responded._

_"Where's the biiiiirthday booooy…?" he asked in a singsong tone._

_InuYasha shivered in fear. Something about this man's tone…chilled his spine. Imaginary ants were crawling under his skin, up his arms and legs. Who was this man?_

_The man's visible shoes lifted slowly as he walked over to the door._

_"Where's my little Inu?" he chuckled. _

_InuYasha shut his eyes tightly and clenched his tiny hands into fists as the man turned the doorknob._

_The door opened the opposite way that InuYasha was positioned._

_"Why, if it isn't the birthday boy…." The man staggered towards the small child. _

_InuYasha backed away, still on the ground sitting and looking up at the man._

_His hair was a dark greasy black, and it was scraggly and covered his face._

_His eyes were wide open, and he had small red irises that blended in well with his dark red pupils that stared down at the small pup ravenously._

_"Haaaappy biiiiiiiiiiiirthdaaaaay…" he said in that annoying singsong tone._

_What did he want?_

_Who was he?_

_InuYasha continued to stare and back away and his glance shifted to the open living room door._

_An ear-shattering shriek ripped from the boy's throat as he saw…_

…

…

…**BEEP!**

…**BEEP! **

…**BEEP!**

**BEEPEEPEEPEEP! **

**BEEPEEPEEPEEP! **

**BEEPEEPEEPEEP! **

**BEEPEEPEEPEE--**

InuYasha stopped his alarm, and closed his eyes for about a minute. His closed eyes made him see red.

"Red…like the blood…" he shuddered. Why was he thinking this NOW? Maybe something big was going to happen…maybe it was just a coincidence…

He got up and began to run across the grass to the wire fence. He grabbed on the railing with one hand, and jumped over it.

He ran rapidly to the convenience store--he was going to be late if he didn't! Being late was also a time for Hanyou punishment_. The person who created the rules didn't miss a single detail…_ he thought. It was all so stupid. There were barely any Hanyous left on the whole planet.

There were only about 47 of them left--around the WORLD!

47…

Most of them had committed suicide, some of them were beaten to death…Hanyou births were rare anyway…the law that newborn Hanyous had to be drowned had only minimized the number of Hanyou births per day…to none at all…

No more Hanyous were to be born anymore…

The number would only slip through like the grains of sand in an hourglass. That was a scary thought…not a day went by with the thoughts of death…would HE die today? What would happen to him?

It was times like this he wished he had his parents to cuddle to. He almost whimpered, but hid his weakness with an 'I don't care' attitude.

InuYasha stopped running as he went through the automatic doors. He got to his dressing room…

…And gasped when he saw that his mirror had been stained with blood, spelling out two words that he had never wanted to hear in his life after that day that his world changed forever.

Two horrible words.

Two disturbing words that meant pleasure to others, and danger to him.

Two words that brought back more painful memories...

Those words…

…

…

…

…Were

**HAPPY BIRTHDAY…**

**END OF CHAPTER THREE…**

**DISCLAIMER: ****we will be updating every Friday. **

**WE NEED REVIEWS!**

**REVIEWS!**


	4. Mysterious Sadness

**CHAPTER FOUR: MYSTERIOUS SADNESS**

_Again, I would like to thank you all for the wonderful reviews!_

_Akuma Youkai  
demonfang73  
Pankakekitty2491  
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ForeverInTheMoment_

_THANK YOU!_

_In this chapter, you learn more about InuYasha…but trust me, the next in my opinion is a better explanation! Can't wait? Review._

…_Little InuYasha had screamed about three seconds before._

_The two lifeless forms of his parents blurring as tears came to his eyes…He forgot to feel the stubborn urge to stop them from coming…_

_They just came…_

_His father had been stabbed in the heart with a knife repeatedly. His chest was overflowing with fresh blood…his light blue shirt was stained with blood…_

_Blood…_

_He was face up on the bed, head dangling over the edge of the bed. His eyes were open, the irises small, with a look of fear imprinted on them. His mouth was open in a small "o"._

_His once strong arms, now limp, bloodstained, and cold from death, would never hold _

_InuYasha up ever again...his shoulders would never hold InuYasha up again… _

_**Dad…**__ InuYasha's throat seemed to shrink in the horror that he was facing. _

_His mother had been stabbed on several parts. She had probably died the first time she was stabbed, but the murderer had stabbed her much more than was necessary. Mostly on the chest..._

_The pink blouse she was wearing was ripped and bloodstained. Her chest had been opened, revealing the black contents inside. Her eyebrows were furrowed in pain. Her eyes were slightly open, and stared blankly into the distance. Frozen tears stained her face._

_**No…**_

_Her lips formed a pained smile. Her face was calm and loving, even in death…_

_Dead…_

_Gone forever…_

_He shivered as he stared up at the murderer. "Help…" he choked through the dryness of his throat, but his small cries of help went unheard._

_"Happy birthday, InuYasha…" said the man in an eerie tone of voice. He was grinning, showing off his yellow teeth._

_He knows my name… InuYasha was scared._

_"I have presents for you…" He dug in his back pocket and…_

…_He took out the same knife that had been used to kill his parents…_

InuYasha clutched the air angrily with his fists as he stared at the message written in blood. Was this a joke?

_Yeah, probably a joke…_ he thought angrily.

**[[But…wait…how the hell does this person know about…--**

_I know…How DOES this person know this?_

**[[I dunno, but something is clear …Okay, first of all, this blood's scent…doesn't it smell familiar…?**

InuYasha stepped closer. He lifted his delicate nose to the bloodstained glass. He sniffed twice.

And was shocked to find out that it was his…

_M-mother?_ InuYasha was shocked.

**[[Yes, Hanyou. It's mother's blood. The person must have wet the blood on the knife to make it fresh again.**

_B-but…only one person could've done it!_

**[[Do you remember his name…?**

_N-no…I remember he told me…but then he put his hand over my face, and I forgot his name. Why ask me, do you remember…?_

**[[…**

_Well?_

**[[Nope…**

…

**[[I don't remember the person's name. The only clues are his voice, the words "Happy Birthday" written in mother's blood, and--**

_Wait…My mother died ten years ago…h-how could this be her blood…?_

**[[He must have rubbed mother's scent on paint or something, because blood isn't that light…**

…_You're RIGHT! This isn't her blood…now that can think easier, I smell…PLASTIC?_

**[[Your Hanyou nose is probably wrong. Let me smell it--PLASTIC? WHAT?**

_I told you. There's this gag that involves fake blood. It's so stupid, I can't believe people fall for it! The man probably made it thin somehow, and he wet it so that the red stuff flows like real blood…_He was speaking from experience. There was a time when he was still young that everyone knew of his fear of blood. They would do it at his old foster home, even at school. It was everywhere…in his lunch, his locker often…mostly on his clothes when he wasn't looking. They would torment him, and he had nobody to turn to for reassurance.

**[[…And then, he rubbed the knife with your mother's blood scent on it!**

_But why--_

**[[He's probably stalking you.**

…

_Probably stalking me, huh?_ InuYasha was fuming with anger. _Thanks._

**[[Hey. I'm a demon. I don't accept the thanks of a Hanyou…**

_A demon…?_

Silence came from the demon. Who was this "demon" and why was he helping him?

…_The only demon I know that would help me is my brother, but that bastard killed him…_

InuYasha stopped to think about Sesshomaru, his unconscious body…The bathtub, blood red water…No visible stabs on his body, but still, he wasn't breathing…

He shuddered, and almost felt sorry that he wasn't able to find out who killed him, and how.

He wanted that person dead, more than anything, more than his own survival on this pitiful Earth...

Kagome finally decided to go to the convenience store to fulfill her forgotten errands that she had wasted her time window shopping and thinking about her father's comments on Hanyous…

The automatic doors opened instantly as she stepped towards it.

She stepped in and went next to the right door. She paused as she stared at it. There was a list pinned on it, displaying the names of the people that worked there with what position.

Out of pure curiosity, Kagome began to read the list. _What position does InuYasha have anyway?_ Kagome wondered. After all, it _was_ where he worked.

She scanned the list with her finger. As she passed every name, she said in a murmured whisper, "InuYasha Taisho…InuYasha Taisho… A-hah! Found him!" She read the position, and just to see if anyone else she knew was on the list.

"Ken Aenaisago… Riku Hajimaru… Hikari Kino… InuYasha Taisho…Imana Yappei…InuYasha Taisho…--WHAT?"

At first, she thought it was a trick of the light. She reread the list about three times.

InuYasha Taisho.

His name was all over the list.

Cashier#3: InuYasha Taisho, Casheir#7: InuYasha Taisho, Cigarette/Lotto ticket cashier: InuYasha Taisho, Employee: InuYasha Taisho, After-hour handyman: InuYasha Taisho…

It was as if InuYasha had every job at the store.

There were only about seventeen other people, but none of them shared more than one position.

How could he be three cashiers, a supervising employee, and an after-hour handyman at the same time? And under "days of work", his name popped out from under every day of work. And he had to do it all…every single position under his name.

_That's wrong!_ Kagome's mind was spinning as the words flew at her, rotating ever so slowly…

_Wow…_ she stared in disbelief at the slip of paper that being so small posed such a heavy, turbulent matter. Did this guy ever get a break?

_Where does he find time for his homework…?_ she wondered.

It all came to her. The same reason he had these work hours was the reason her father had done so much verbal injustice towards his kind.

Was there no stopping the thoughts of the world?

InuYasha could feel his anger boiling up, could feel his body emitting an invisible red spectrum of anger…

He could taste the bitterness and sadness in his mouth.

He could hear the laugh of the deranged man ringing in his delicate ears.

And worst of all, he could smell his own fear.

Was the person who wrote "Happy birthday" on his mirror the same one…?

The one who had despicably murdered the ones who had loved him, the ones who had brought to the world his existence?

Was it REALLY the same guy?

He knew he was going to be late for his shift if he didn't hurry up. He finished changing into his work clothes and walked out of the door.

InuYasha worked at the cash register for his first shift, and switched to the cigar/lottery shift, then back to the register, then to the walking.

_Man, what a hell! Why the hell am I stuck with this stupid job?_

**[[First of all, it's the only way you will be able to pay for tuition, Second of all--**

_NO! I meant, "WHY ME"!_

**[[You say that every single day…**

InuYasha seethed angrily as he walked the aisles. Of course, he never let his anger get the best of him. He knew nobody would let him get away with anger. He would be punished for sure… He went to the computer/television aisle to check on customers.

A lady was standing in front of three televisions, with a decisive look on her face. "Hmmm…What TV is the best…?" she asked herself.

"Excuse me ma'am. Do you need help?" he asked, startling her.

"No, I'm fine!" she said, looking at him with a disgusted look on her face. Just then, Hojo Ashitoki walked up to her, and asked, "Do you need help, ma'am?"

"Why, that'd be nice young man!" she said, smiling.

InuYasha sighed. It was always like this. He was surprised he even got paid. _It's like doing nothing for money_… he thought agitatedly.

"Hi!"

He turned around. "Oh, hi…" He blinked. It was Kagome. There she was, her beautiful silky hair moving swiftly with every turn of the head. She tried to hide her feelings with a smile, but InuYasha sensed something was up.

"Kagome, are you alright?" He asked, looking deep into her beautiful brown orbs.

"I'm ok…but are you?" she asked.

"I'm fine…" InuYasha began, but he knew he wasn't. He was tired, of course, no matter how much he tried to sleep his nightmares would taunt him and wake him up…and his mattress wasn't exactly a pleasant thing as well…Not to mention all he had eaten this morning was an unheated pop-tart. And there was also…

She sighed.

He saw she was not convinced. "I really am! Like I said, I don't get sick, and I feel okay! Is that enough for you?" She was playing a bit with his nerves, and he tried to get angry with her, but it was mission impossible with that sad expression on her face.

"No, it's not! You're the only one here that has to do 5 jobs every day!" Kagome said softly. _I'm being so irrational! Why am I acting so STUPID? He probably gets paid more…_ she thought. But all of the thoughts of the way Hanyous were treated betrayed that thought.

"It's okay. Kagome, why does it matter?" InuYasha exclaimed, putting on an angry façade, but inside, he was embarrassed. Why WAS she concerned for him?

"I'm sorry, I just thought it was unfair…but now, I realized that you get paid more, right?" Kagome smiled.

"Yeah…" he lied. He got paid 20 dollars a day while his comrades got paid 40 dollars…and this was a crappy minimum wage job too.

"Oh. That's good!" Kagome smiled, but she knew he was lying.

He sighed. "I've got to get back to work…"

"Okay. Sorry for bothering you…" she looked down.

InuYasha looked at Kagome's downcast face, put the tip of his hand under her chin, and lifted it up.

"It's okay Kagome…" He stroked the hair that was sticking to the salt on her tears away, and she sighed. "I went way over my head. Sorry…" she smiled. She quickly glanced at her watch. "Oh! I've got to go too," she rose from her slight crouch, and began to walk out.

"Kagome!" InuYasha extended a hand, but quickly withdrew it.

"Yes…?" she turned, almost hopefully.

"S-see you on Monday…?" he asked faintly.

Kagome smiled, knowing that this scene was oddly familiar. "See you on Monday."

**END OF CHAPTER 4…**

_The next chapter is coming, don't worry! Please review, I would like to hear __**CONSTRUCTIVE **__criticism and compliments…or I will force the split personality to do something…tainted with malice…mwahahaha!_


	5. Painful Memories

**CHAPTER FIVE: PAINFUL MEMORIES**

InuYasha sighed as he watched Kagome walk down the aisle. _She really cares about this…_he thought. He could practically hear a smirk escaping the lips of his "split personality".

**[[Hmph. Are you sure that she ISN'T crazy? I sense that the girl has some sort of hidden power. Are you sure that she isn't a demon?**

_NO. For the last time, NO._

**[[…Hmmm…How can you be so certain…? Are you--? **

_NO!_

**[[…**

_I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE THINKING!_

**[[But it's the truth.**

_I don't like Kagome!_

**[[…You don't like Kagome? You don't LIKE Kagome? Maybe you…** The "split personality" began to play with the end of the phrase, putting InuYasha at a loss for words, which resulted in his saying:

_You're mean!_

**[[THAT was blunt. Stupid, and blunt. I have no more business speaking to you.**

_FINE!_

InuYasha sighed as he walked into the changing room. The mirror had been cleaned, but not by him. He had been too scared to wipe the false blood off it. But…

The only person allowed inside the Hanyou's changing room…

…Was HIM…

No one else wanted to share a dressing room with him, or even to catch the Hanyou's GERMS, the DISEASE.

…So…WHO CLEANED THE MIRROR?

_Dammit…this is getting so…fucking…ANNOYING!_

**[[I know…something's going on…**

_Well, DUH. Of COURSE something's going on. Why else would these flashbacks and dreams be coming back NOW? I haven't had them since I was a kid!_

**[[…I'm not sure…**

…

**[[Well…**

_WHO ARE YOU ANYWAY?_

**[[…You'll know soon enough.**

_WHAT'S THAT ALL ABOUT?_

**[[Hmmph. Were you a hothead since BIRTH?**

This remark sent InuYasha flying.

_STOP BUGGING ME! I HAVE NO DAMN CLUE WHO THE HELL YOU ARE! I wouldn't be surprised if YOU were the one that is sending me all these stupid dreams_!

**[[…** The voice sighed, and was silent.

_C'MON!_

Silence.

_TALK TO ME! _

Still silence.

InuYasha decided to give up talking to "nobody". But still, he was hiding his fear with anger, so as soon as there was silence, a large pit opened in his stomach, large enough to drag him into hell itself.

A pit of loneliness. Endless black…

He finished changing, did the custodian's "dirty work", received his tip, and headed for "home".

_"Home" isn't home. It stands for "Hell of My Existence". Heh._ InuYasha chuckled softly as he pictured his life getting worse.

But the idea of a worse position on the globe was instantly faded on a child in the darkness.

A small little boy, six years of age, sitting behind a dumpster, starving, dying, and the hand that extended to help him…He shook his head. He did not want to remember the pain of how horrible the events that proceeded to occur after that were. So he pushed it out of his mind.

Anything, even THIS was better than what he had before.

He sat down on the grass, and yawned. _Sooo tired…_

…But he knew that the math test was tomorrow, and he HAD to study for it…

…SLEEP…

InuYasha opened his backpack. He searched for his math notebook. He found it, and a note fell out from the pages. "Huh?" InuYasha grasped it in his hands. What the hell is this? He opened the folded up note.

It was long, and the writing was in red and so diminutive that it was hard to read. The odd kind of flourish in which it was written in didn't make it any easier…

What kind of person writes like this anymore? Hmm… he wondered. He decided to read it.

It read:

_**My Dear, DEAR InuYasha,**_

_**I'm SO sorry for the delay. It has been FAR too long. I cannot even apologize for the amount of TIME I have wasted to communicate with you. Anyway, how are you? I hope you are boding well? Is Ms. Shime still caring well for you? **_

What is he talking about? Ms. Shime is dead…She was murdered…

_**I hope so. I couldn't BEAR to see my precious Inu get HARMED in any way! Is school okay? Oh god, I'm starting to sound like your MOTHER. How is she Anyway? I do hope she stays in the peaceful state she has been in lately. And your FATHER... DEAR Inu no Taisho... What good friends we were... We were the BEST of friends. Would YOU like to be a friend? I hope so. I love to see how all my friends end up. Heheheh...**_

InuYasha growled in anger. _Who IS this weirdo? What the HELL does he want with me? Do I know you?_ He read on.

_**I bet you're thinking, "Who IS this weirdo? What the HELL does he want with me? Do I know you?" **_

_HUH?_

_**I will not reveal my name...YET. I want to give you the time of your life. Heh. Do you know me? I'd say pretty much yes. In fact, we are GOOD friends. Heheheh... I know that you will end up like your parents one day. Inu no Taisho and Izayoi were never meant to be. They were two different species. The man was a demon, and the woman was a stupid HUMAN. How I despise humans...**_

InuYasha bit his lip, exposing a fang. How DARE this weirdo talk that way about his mother!

_**Oops! Almost forgot! We'll meet soon... What a HAPPY reunion it will **_**be! **_**There'll be balloons, cake,**_** PRESENTS...**

What a weirdo…

_**A very SPECIAL present from ME...a present I think that I'm sure you'll never forget...Heheheh...**_

_Who IS this guy?_

_**You and your good friend will be REUNITED...and OH, what FUN it'll be... I'm SURE you'll just LOVE to finally find out who you despise the most...**_

_Wait…_

_**I love you!**_

_OooooookAay…THAT was disturbing…_

_**I wish you the HAPPIEST and BEST. I apologize some more for waiting TEN WHOLE YEARS For writing to you. I'm sorry. I want to surprise you on your special day! I think it'll be the best surprise ever! I knew you. You were the CUTEST little kid in the WHOLE NEIGHBORHOOD! If only you weren't a HANYOU! Pity. **_

InuYasha gritted his teeth.

_**My doggie Sesshomaru, and me are just fine. Oh, you have a brother named Sesshomaru too! How is he? I'm sure he's handsome! Heheheh...**_

This was getting to be too much. It was starting to get pretty obvious who it was. But yet…It could STILL be some crazy weirdo whose delight was torturing innocent Hanyou citizens…

_**I love parties. Don't YOU love parties? I haven't been to a party in a long time! Heheheh...**_

_**...TEN YEARS to be exact...**_

InuYasha's heart began pounding.

_**InuYasha. You couldn't possibly forget, could you? The party theme was RED. BLACKISH-RED. It was fun. But for some reason, you weren't smiling. You were CRYING. Hmmm...I wonder why? **_

InuYasha gasped. His eyes widened as he stared at the note in his hands.

_**Anyway, you were the sweetest little kid ever. Those tiny delicate ears...that tender nose...white hair...amber eyes... You were PERFECT. But you made ONE mistake in life.**_

_**You spoke to a stranger.**_

_**A DANGEROUS stranger.**_

_**That stranger is a VERY BAD MAN! Bad Inu! He did something BAAAD to you and everyone else in your happy little family...**_

_**Something that could KILL...**_

This was starting to seriously creep InuYasha out. How the HELL did this…this…PERSON…know so much? He knew a little bit TOO much to be a detective, and seemed like some con man that could annoy the CRUD out of people. This was BEYOND annoying for InuYasha. Not to mention frightening. He felt a chill run down his spine. This man was speaking in riddle, and not very good ones either…but there was something about them that scared the fuck out of him.

_**You seem like a good kid. Like your dad was. What a guy he was...He was hot, and could have had ANYONE, but he chose your pathetic excuse for a mother. Say Hi to your GIRLFRIEND for me, would you? OH! One more thing I think you should know. Something...IMPORTANT, I guess...**_

_**Happy Birthday. Love and hugs from your dear friend, **_

_**Anonymous**_

_Anonymous…_

_Anonymous…_

_Anonymous…_

"No…" InuYasha crumpled the paper in his hand. "NO!" He walked back as if HE were watching him. HE. Still a blank in InuYasha's mind, this man's name was but a mystery…

"DAMN HIM! WHY THE HELL DID HE HAVE TO SHOW UP? MY LIFE'S MISERABLE AS IT IS! WHY THE HELL?" he yelled as he ran into the forest. "Why the hell…?" he repeated softly, as if it were a whisper. He collapsed onto the ground. He was in front of the spring. His eyes blanked out, until all that he could see was the image of a six year old Hanyou, trapped in a house with a man and his weapons...

_"Happy birthday, InuYasha…" said the man. He was grinning, showing off his yellow teeth. __**He knows my name…**__ InuYasha was scared. "I have presents for you…" He dug in his back pocket and…He took out the same knife that had been used to kill InuYasha's parents…_

_There it was, in his hand, stained with their blood…_

_InuYasha picked himself up, and RAN._

_He narrowly missed slipping on the bloodstained carpet. He ran upstairs rapidly up to his brother's room…It was empty…maybe he was in the bathroom, like he usually was at that time._

_He was afraid to open the door…_

_And when he did…_

_Steam emitted from the warm bloodstained water. It reflected all over the body of his big brother, dead, DEAD, __**DEAD**_

_He wanted to scream, but didn't want to be heard. He didn't want to get closer to the body…InuYasha choked, tears stinging his eyes._

_What did this psycho want?_

_"Haaaaaaappy biiiiiiirthdaaay toooo yoooou, heheheh…Haaaaaaappy biiiiiiirthdaaay toooo yoooou…" He could hear the man singing slowly as he staggered up the stairs. InuYasha sobbed as he remembered his father's mortally wounded corpse, his mother's frozen sad smile…_

_Why did his sixth birthday turn out so wrong?_

_InuYasha took one last painful glance at Sesshomaru's body, and slowly shut the door._

_But as soon as the doorknob clicked, and InuYasha turned around, he was face to face with the murderer. _

_"Give your Uncle…" InuYasha then felt the sudden sensation that something was muffling the name of the man with a pillow as the man's hand went over InuYasha's face. His eyes were shielded by this man's sweaty hand. "…A birthday hug…!" The man extended his arms, knife in hand._

_InuYasha stared at the weapon. Once, just a normal kitchen knife, but now, a lethal murder weapon. There it was, in its entire deadly luster, gleaming in a light that seemed eerie to the little Hanyou, the possession of a madman. White light reflected off of the blade, making his face paler than it already was. He stared at his reflection on the luminescent blade, and saw his mother's face again._

_Pain…sorrow…longing…_

_Her face was just a flash, but InuYasha couldn't bear to stare at her eyes. Her eyes were what haunted him more…They no longer collected light…_

_Blank…unstaring…sad…_

_And to think that once they were smiling eyes…_

_"Mommy…" InuYasha ran under the man's arms with the devil at his heels. He paused at the end of the staircase. His stomach heaved as he panted for air. He could hear the maniac's slow rendition of "Happy Birthday"._

_In his raspy, slurred voice, he sang, "Haaaappy BIIIIIIIIIIIIIRTHDAAAAY, InuYaaaashaaaaa, Haaaappy biiiiiirthdaaay toooo yoooou…" He then began to laugh, not really a laugh, it was more of a horrible cackle that echoed through the stair hallway. _

_InuYasha ran downstairs, and into the kitchen. He quickly grabbed a stool, stood on it, and reached for the phone. He dialed 911._

_"Hello, 911, how may I help you?" It was the voice of a woman._

_"Hello! I have a big problem! This evil man killed my mommy and my daddy and my brother, and now, he's trying to do something to me!" He yelled into the receiver. He then described the man's appearance, and told her his address._

_"What is your name?" the woman asked suspiciously after he gave her the address. She knew. She knew that a Hanyou lived there. _

_"Sesshomaru," he lied, for if he told her that he was InuYasha, the half-breed, they would leave him to die at the hands of that psycho._

_"We'll be right there!" There was a small click, then some static. She had hung up. InuYasha stood, staring blankly at the phone._

_There was a loud stomp. InuYasha looked up to see that his stalker was standing before him, knife still in hand…_

_"InuYaaaashaaaaa…It's time to have some barbecue…It'll be good..." the man laughed with a look in his tiny irises that InuYasha could barely stand._

_He pocketed the knife, and searched for something. Then, he extracted something forcefully, and clamped his fist shut over the object. The man smirked. InuYasha trembled as he approached him. Slowly, like a sea anemone, the man opened his fingers slightly. _

_InuYasha gasped when saw the object in the man's hand._

_It was a lighter._

_"Heheheh…" the man chuckled, passing InuYasha, and heading towards his parent's room. _

_The room in which his parents were murdered._

_"I want this to be a birthday you'll NEVER forget…" the man rasped. _

_InuYasha watched in horror as the man violently stepped on his mother's hair. "Heheheh…foolish woman…giving birth to a Hanyou like YOU!" He ignited the lighter, and threatened to throw it on the carpet. _

_"NO! P-please don't!" InuYasha sobbed thickly, almost suffocating from his fit of hyperventilation. His little heart would be crushed if the man did it. _

_"…Fine, then let's go on to the last present…" The man blew the flame out, pocketed the lighter, and took the knife out again._

_InuYasha ran._

_He ran as fast as his small legs could take him._

_He slipped, and landed in the blood, but he got up and ran up the stairs._

_"InuYaaaaaashaaaa…it's time to light the caaaandles…Come here…" the man said in that menacing singsong tone of his. _

_InuYasha, his shirt, legs, and right cheek stained with blood, turned slowly, once again by the man's will, fearing the worst._

_HE was at the bottom of the stairway._

_The man clutched the knife in his right hand, and threatened to kill little Inu with the same bloodstained tip that had killed his mother and his father._

_InuYasha shifted his eyes to the hand behind the man's back. He shivered. Does he have a gun? he wondered. He hoped not…_

_The man extracted his hand from his back. He was holding a different lighter. "You don't want your presents before lighting the candles, do you? You'll get your present after that…" said the man promisingly. He ignited the lighter, and before InuYasha could do anything about it, he dropped it onto the carpet. _

_White blazes of flame gave off its blinding light, making InuYasha's eyes cloud with not only tears. InuYasha watched in horror as the man did the same with another lighter…then another…and another…and another…_

_"Six candles for six years…though I doubt you'll live to see another one…" The man grinned._

_InuYasha's throat seemed to shrink, until the pain in his throat made it harder to breathe…he was so scared, he could not form words…_

_The terrified Hanyou ran downstairs, dodging the increasing fires. The man laughed, and once again began to sing his rendition of "Happy Birthday", But changing the words. "Haaaappy deeeeeathdaaaay toooo yoooou, Happy deeeeeeathdaaaaay toooo yoooou, Happy DEEEEEEEATHDAAY, InuYasha…Happy deeeeathdaaaay toooo yoooou!" He laughed. Then, dozens of sirens filled the air._

_The man's expression changed from jubilant to anger and fear._

_"YOU CALLED THE POLICE?" the man screamed in fury. "YOU CALLED THE POLICE?" the man angrily smirked, and said, "It's not over whelp. I will make you remember, I will haunt your days and your dreams…you cannot escape me so easily, Hanyou! I'll make boundaries that keep you close to me! You will meet the same fate as that miserable woman Izayoi and that foolish dog Inu no Taisho!" He laughed and crashed through the window. _

_Glass shattered and broke into tiny pieces. They scattered all over the place. InuYasha clutched his head with his hands, in an effort to protect himself from the sharp shards. InuYasha ran into the open door of his parent's bedroom, and hugged his mother. Her blood was going onto him, her fresh, crimson blood, but he didn't care…_

_"Mommy…" he sobbed, his eyes wide open as the fire crept into the room. Open, and unseeing…_

_He soon saw black…_

_About an hour later, InuYasha opened his eyes. Snow began to fall, lightly touching his tearstained cheek. InuYasha looked up. The ceiling was gone…burned out…_

_Half the house was gone… _

_Little InuYasha hugged his mother's limp body, when something cut his hand. It was his hand that was under her body. He withdrew it, and saw that it was cut, and covered in blood._

_He realized that something was on her back. Something sharp…He carefully flipped her body to reveal a knife. InuYasha pulled it out. The wound was filled with congealed blood, black blood. A bloodstained rib was showing, and InuYasha saw that the knife had stabbed her heart…_

_Her dead heart…_

_He stared at the knife in his hands, when a call arose. "HEY! I've found something!"_

_A group of firemen and policemen walked over to where the call had come from. They saw InuYasha hunched over his mother, holding a knife stained with her blood…_

_"So YOU'RE the murderer!" A policewoman said scornfully. InuYasha remembered her voice from the phone call. The firemen and the policemen sneered triumphantly._

_InuYasha looked at his hand and the knife, and then he looked up fearfully at the group of officials. NO! he thought. You have it all wrong! It was the bad man! InuYasha wanted to scream._

_One policeman grabbed the Hanyou by the collar of his shirt. "You killed everyone…" he said in disbelief._

_"Stupid Hanyou, he KNEW he was going to get in trouble. Why even bother?"_

_"I say it's the parent's fault. Stupid enough to give birth to him…"_

_"They should have known what would happen…"_

_"Let's take him to the office."_

_InuYasha struggled from the policeman's strong grip. "Please! MOMMY!" InuYasha called as he was separated from his mother's corpse. "MOMMY!" InuYasha scratched the air, flinging himself wildly. He bit the man forcefully on the hand, as hard as his tiny dog-like fangs could._

_"YOW!" the man exclaimed as he dropped the Hanyou and shook his bloody knuckle in the air to relieve the pain._

_InuYasha began to run as fast as the wind. His tears flew behind him, his bedraggled dirty hair, his bloodstained clothes, his hand, his cheek…the blood, the knife, the murderer…_

_His mother's face, his father's body… _

_It was too much._

_His young heart had started to form the barrier…_

_Where am I supposed to go? Mommy…daddy…DEAD…Sesshomaru, dead… he wondered as he ran. He barely even knew where he was going. His instinct was telling him where to go…_

_A voice inside the Hanyou's head said, __**[[RUN InuYasha!**_

_**W-who are you?**_

_**[[I am your…SPLIT PERSONALITY…**_

_**Split personality?**_

_**[[Yes, Inu. I will protect you from enemies.**_

_InuYasha continued to run and hid behind a dumpster. He shivered and whimpered shrilly. He was scared, and cold and alone. _

_No one left alive…_

_He hugged his knees, and squeezed his eyes shut. More snow fell from the sky. Hot tears ran down the boy's auburn cheeks. They mixed with the blood on his cheeks, making the smell even worse. _

_**[[This will be our home, Inu.**_

_**Our HOME?**__ InuYasha sniffed. _

_Yeah, THIS was going to be a GREAT home._

_**[[Until someone FINDS us…**__ The voice reassured._

_InuYasha put his head in the safety of his hands. _

_**[[Don't worry Yasha. The bad man won't find us here…**__ The voice sounded familiar to InuYasha. _

_"Are you really a 'split personality'?" he asked curiously._

_The voice hesitated to answer. Then, _

_**[[Yes…**_

_"Oh…" InuYasha was disappointed. He had hoped for a ghost of his brother or father to be talking to him._

_Thinking about his father made him miss him even more. "Mommy and daddy are gone…bad man sent them to heaven…"_

_The voice stayed quiet, then it softly said, __**[[I know. But let's acknowledge the fact that mommy and daddy are angels, guarding the heavens, and our hearts. They're protecting you, InuYasha. They love you. They're making the snow fall for you.**_

…

_**My birthday…wasn't happy…I got the worst present ever…mommy's eyes…daddy's face…smell of blood…**_

_**[[Don't worry, InuYasha. That's all in the past. It's over now. Happy birthday! **__The voice began to sing,__** [[Happy birthday to you, Hap--**_

_"NOOOO! DON'T SING THAT! PLEASE!" InuYasha began to howl, and covered his little dog ears. _

_InuYasha was truly terrified now. "It was just fine before!" he sobbed. "Why did it all turn out so wrong?"_

_**[[I don't know…I don't know…**__ The voice shook._

_"I'm scared…" _

_The Hanyou shivered in the snow. He rubbed his arms with his hands, and looked up. The sky was almost white, just like the surroundings. For InuYasha, it was a horrible December 8th._

_The worst one in his life…_

_And to think that he was only six…_

InuYasha soon regained consciousness. He felt something warm on his cheek. He touched it, and his hand was wet. He had been crying.

Mom…mommy… He couldn't go on. It was too hard. But his mother was up there, watching, hoping for him to succeed.

He had already defied so much. The man had said he wouldn't live to see another birthday, he had lived to see 10 more.

He had never celebrated it again, and everytime he heard the damn song, even on the ice cream truck that passed once in a while, he would try not to cry out.

But his thoughts all switched away from the awful thoughts.

He gave himself confidence, even if it was short-lived…

_I will succeed. I won't let the man win…_

**END OF CHAPTER 5…**


	6. Fight!

_A.N: We would like to thank _

_DaRkAnGeL357  
TrueBelle  
lovelyflip08  
inuaiko  
Sasuke luver 01  
BlakRozarin44  
Akuma Youkai  
White Moonlight_

_For reviewing the past chapter…_

_We just finished talking about the new chapter of the Naruto manga that just came out. _

_**WARNING: IF YOU HATE SPOILERS, or THEORIES, THEN SKIP ONTO THE STORY FAST!!!**_

_My friend Sherii-sama is obsessed with the new members, who were revealed in the new chapter. Tobi and Deidara are supposedly kaput, and Sasuke is reunited with his new team members. _

_My friend has a theory about the female akatsuki member…She might be pregnant. If you look at pictures of her, she is always clutching her stomach and is always around the leader. Hinthinthemightbethefatherhint. She's obsessed with Naruto and wanted me to post this here merely out of randomness and an overdose of sugar of some sort._

_**END OF SPOILER!**_

_I'm SO, SO, TERRIBLY SORRY if you hate us for that sudden random outburst. Sorry…lol…_

_On to the story and I hope that you review…lol…dies revives self and continues writing -AmiOri_

**CHAPTER SIX: FIGHT**

It was a sunny Monday morning. InuYasha yawned, and got up, washed, changed, and headed for school. He ran so fast that no one could see him. Wind whistled in his delicate ears.

For some reason, an image of his mother's face appeared in his mind.

Pale face…eyes glazed over in death…

"WHAT?" he said out loud, almost crashing into a truck. Luckily, he missed it. "Jeez. Why am I remembering her now?" InuYasha said worriedly. _Night…that note...the dream…happy birthday…_ he thought. He was scared, and confused. Was the bad man really still alive? Or was it a gruesome memory, an illusion, a figment of his imagination?

A part of him hoped that he was alive. He wanted to crush him, to kill him for destroying his family. Another part of him made him hope that the man WAS an illusion. He was scared.

He finally got to the school doors. He opened them with his callused clawed hands. He sighed as he walked to his locker. Some sneered at him. Some just minded their business.

He passed many people, some which loathed him, some that didn't want to have anything to do with him...

He had arrived at the locker, when suddenly, before he was even an inch away from it, he felt two hands thrust him onto its door. InuYasha looked up, and saw several demons.

"Did you miss us?" asked a scrawny wolf demon. His hair was jet black, and his eyes were crystal blue.

"I hope so," said a rat demon.

"You'd better," a moth demon added forcefully.

The other demons nodded in agreement.

The wolf demon pounded his fist.

InuYasha stared at them angrily with his amber eyes, gazing into their peerless orbs. Before he could jump at them, the moth demon punched him in the stomach. A slight trickle of blood came out of his mouth. He winced in pain as the claws dug into his skin.

The wolf demon struck the Hanyou on the face.

_It…hurts…_ he thought. The wolf demon began to scratch the Hanyou's face.

Blood…

A huge crowd was watching in amusement. He was kicked, hit, struck, punched…he was too weak to strike back.

The bell rang, and the demons abandoned InuYasha by his locker.

"Say hi to your girlfriend Kagome for me!" the wolf demon shouted over his shoulder at the Hanyou.

_Hanyou…_

_Maybe I should just die now…_ he thought.

To die would be the easy way out, the painless, effortless way to escape…

But…

WAIT…

Did that word really mean that much to him?

Did that DISGUSTING title affect him that much?

Did it REALLY make him want to commit SUICIDE?

For some reason, an image of Kagome flashed in his mind for a second. "Kagome…" No, he couldn't die, he couldn't leave Kagome…they had only known each other for almost a week, but already, she meant so much to him. The other reason that he couldn't die was because of his mother. She would be sad if he didn't succeed in life and graduate.

And the man…the MANIAC…InuYasha would be playing by the man's rules…the man would win.

He couldn't give the bad man that pleasure…

**[[But…what if Kagome sees you like this…? You'll be a weakling in her eyes. Unable to protect her…**

_SHUT UP!_ InuYasha didn't want to hear the rest.

**[[You know that there are boundaries.**

_I know. But maybe it'll work out!_

**[[I'm sorry, but…the possibilities of her hating you increase when she sees you hurt. It only tells her that one who ends a fight in this condition cannot possibly protect her.**

_I'd rather get sentenced to the "Hanyou's worst nightmare" hall than to hear that…_

**[[It's true.**

_But…_

InuYasha couldn't deny it any longer. He COULDN'T protect Kagome like this…not like this…Why was it HIM? Why did HE have to be the outcast, the half-breed? He realized that he could not possibly blame his parents.

InuYasha was staring at his hands. The ugly, huge, claw-adorned hands that belonged to the Hanyou he was.

They had beaten him badly this time. He could feel the trickle of blood from his nose. His stomach still felt pain.

He knew that he and Kagome were not meant to be friends.

Because he knew.

He was strong enough to take the suffering, to cooperate with the pain…but Kagome…

Kagome was going to die if she stayed with him.

He couldn't protect her.

No tears came, but inside, InuYasha was sobbing inconsolably, like a small child that needed comfort. "Damn…" he whispered, his head hanging low.

Kagome was walking through the hall, looking at a watch on her arm. She looked up, and was surprised to see a blood covered InuYasha.

"INUYASHA! What happened to you?" she asked, running up to him. InuYasha looked up at her, and began to crawl back, facing front. _Oh man, she hates me now… _InuYasha thought fearfully.

"WAIT!" Kagome extended a hand, and InuYasha shut his eyes and waited for the slap.

But the hand that he had expected to slap him rubbed the side of his face that wasn't swollen. "Are you okay?" Kagome asked worriedly.

That's when InuYasha began to cry.

Out of frustration, he began to let the tears that had been contained for so long run freely down his auburn cheeks.

"InuYasha…? You're okay, aren't you…?" she asked, her soft, brown eyes boring into his own amber ones sadly. "Y-yeah…I guess…" He looked at the pale hand that had touched his cheek, and then he looked up at her.

"Oh, InuYasha…" she said softly, her beautiful voice cracking.

"Feh…" InuYasha said weakly. "It's been far worse…than this…" InuYasha winced as he said that last part.

"Worse than THIS?" she exclaimed in disbelief. A look of shock filled her beautiful chocolate colored eyes. "How can they be so cruel to you?" she sobbed.

InuYasha was struck with a wide array of mixed feelings as he watched this woman cry for him. His mother had really been the only one who had ever cried for him…

"Because the Hanyou rules prohibit me from interacting normally with students. Rule number one: If a Hanyou talks back to anyone, he will be beaten. Rule number two:--"

"You've memorized those rules?" She continued to sob. InuYasha was surprised. "Yup…all the way to rule 150." he answered.

"Oh…" Kagome was struck with horror, "…they created those rules for Hanyous that had been born before that Hanyou drowning rule…" she said as she wiped at her eyes.

"Yeah…I was 13 when they passed that rule…" he sighed.

Kagome couldn't stop staring silently at the tormented Hanyou.

At first, she had just been curious.

She had wanted to feel his pain…and now she unfortunately had; the mere thought of him being treated this way was painful enough. But…InuYasha had felt it all his life. Now that she had felt it, Kagome did not want him to feel it ever again. But she couldn't do anything about it. She couldn't stop it. She knew she couldn't. She was just one person in a world of a million. Warm tears began to fall down Kagome's cheek.

"InuYasha…it hurts, doesn't it…?" Kagome couldn't see by her tears as she slumped to the ground, next to him.

"Please, get away…I'll hurt you…It'll hurt you worse than it hurts me…I don't want to see another dead woman…" he said painfully, looking at her with a sad smile.

_What do you mean InuYasha? Have you seen a dead person before? I have no way of knowing… _she thought as more tears fell.

Her body felt weak, her heart did too…weak with pain…sadness…

Tears were stinging her eyes, her hair was sticking to her salt stained cheeks, her throat was constricting like the painful beating of her sad heart…Her whole body felt heavy with the knowledge of InuYasha's pain. So this is how he felt. And she had no idea. "I'm so sorry!" she sobbed.

This was unexpected. InuYasha stared at her tearstained face. "It's okay. It's not your fault," he said softly. "THEY are the ones who hurt me, not you…" InuYasha looked at her with a slight smile on his hurt face. "It's my fault…"

"B-But I've bothered you so much already! I'm only adding onto your burden…It isn't your fault, what makes you think that? It's mine!" said Kagome, her shoulders shaking.

"It's OKAY Kagome. Like I said: it's NOT YOUR F--" he was interrupted by a fit of coughing. She saw that he was hacking up blood. She gasped, and said, "InuYasha! Are you okay?"

He coughed some more. "Y-yeah…I'm okay…"

"No you're not. Listen, you've got to go home!" she said sternly, helping the Hanyou up.

"No, Kagome, I'll be fine, I'm fi--"

"No. You. Are. Not. I'll take you to your home. Just lead the way!" she said worriedly.

"Kagome, trust me. You DO NOT want to see my home. You'll try to take me away! I won't let anyone do that anymore!" InuYasha said furiously.

Kagome's face softened. Where exactly did he live?

InuYasha sighed. "Fine, I'll take you. But you'd better PROMISE that you won't take me into your home."

"Promise."

InuYasha walked in an odd limp, and Kagome had to hold him up. They were already in the streets.

"Thanks again, Kagome…" he said weakly.

"Hey why don't you come stay at my house?" asked Kagome.

"No!"

"Aww, come on please?"

"NO!"

"Please?"

"No! You don't know what I've been through! N.O--"

She stopped him midway and put two fingers on his lips. "I don't care what'll happen. As…as…" She blushed, and stared at the sidewalk. "As long as I'm with…" She looked up at his eyes. "…You…"

He stared at her blankly. "Kagome…I…I…" He lightly put his arms around her.

People stared, and Kagome just went on.

She whispered in his ear softly, "InuYasha…why don't you want me to take you in…?"

InuYasha thought for a while. Then, he said, "…Shiori and her mother's decapitated bodies…Ms. Shime's wide eyed corpse…Mr. Takashima's abducted son…The blood…the X's…I don't want anyone to do that to you…"

Kagome gasped as InuYasha listed the examples of people that had taken him in.

"And your parents?"

"Murdered. Sixth birthday. Brother was gone too. I know who killed them. I want to slit his throat…badly…He had knives…lighters…house was burned down…the police was trying to take me away because I was the only one alive. The murderer escaped…" he explained weakly.

_Oh my god. So much pain…sadness… and loneliness…_ thought Kagome as he told her of his parent's murders.

"We're here," he said as they stood in front of the 7-11. "You live in a 7-11 store?" asked Kagome.

"Nope, I live behind it."

He led her through the wire fence, through the trees, and into a huge abandoned space.

There was an abundance of grass, and a forest.

"T-this is your home…?" Kagome asked silently.

"Yup. The Hell of My Existence," he said, displaying the place as if it were a luxurious car. Kagome giggled. "How long have you lived here…?" "Since I was 12," he said, stretching weakly on the grass."12?" Kagome was a bit surprised. "Is this enough for you InuYasha?" she asked.

"Hey. I've got a bathroom, a bed, a wall, and a homework desk. That's enough for me." Kagome looked around once more. She then asked, "What do you eat?"

InuYasha paused. "Berries, some meat, and sometimes, I buy stuff from the convenience store."

Kagome stood silently. _He has his whole life planned out here…he knows by now which things he shouldn't touch… _

She looked up at his face with a persistent look, and said, "Why don't you want me to take you in? I know you can't possibly be okay with this! I doubt that my mom would really mind, and my brother won't bother you and—"

"Kagome, NO!" InuYasha could not believe that after all of that Kagome continued to pressure him with that question. Deep inside, he wondered why she even wanted to…

Yet she went on. "You have nothing…" she said sadly. "No stove, no fridge, nothing to keep your food or anything. I know you're worried, but this is just so sad!"

"Kagome!"

"And also, you only have two shirts and one pair of pants! How can you live like that…?"

He looked at the shirt he had hanging on the branch and sighed. How could girls tell by just looking that he didn't have more hidden in the bushes? Well, he DIDN'T really have more than one other shirt than the one on his back. But he never felt that it was something to worry about…he blushed. _I can't afford anything else…_

It was almost as if she could read his mind. She blushed timidly. "M-maybe we should go shopping…?"

He sighed. "I…I don't have any money, I won't be able to pay you back…" InuYasha looked at her face, blushing. Her face was red, but in her eyes, he saw a look that patiently explained that this time, she wouldn't take no for an answer.

"Fine…let's go tomorrow then…" he said.

This news made her look up at him and blush an even darker shade. She smiled. She couldn't wait to see what she could do for him…he really deserved it…

"I can't wait till tomorrow!" She said happily and playfully.

Kagome put herself over the fence and she waved from the other side.

InuYasha waved back weakly.

"See you tomorrow…" he whispered.

**[[Awww! Isn't that cute! Look, she wants to be with you! Awww!**

_DON'T YOU EVER SHUT UP?_

**END OF CHAPTER SIX…**

_Please leave a review if you like it that much…every Friday we will try to have the next chapter up soon. Thanks for the current reviews! _**:3 **–Ami and Sherii


	7. Do whatever you want, as long as

**CHAPTER SEVEN: WHATEVER YOU WANT…AS LONG AS ITS BEFORE THE NIGHT…**

_A.N: Ok, I know that EVERYONE here wants to hurt me because I haven't updated but please understand that I am about to start a new school, just came back from a deep depression and have been working my butt off to earn money and at the same time have some time left over to write this. I'm really sorry. :P It's just that time has not really been on my side lately…neither has luck or happiness._

_But I'm here to offer some happiness to someone else so…yeah…hope you enjoy this chapter._

_School starts tomorrow…Wow. I hope that anyone who is going back has a good time. Dammit I don't want to be a freshman! TTTT_

_End of Author's Note._

InuYasha waited nervously in front of the bus stop for Kagome to arrive. It was in the front of the 7-11, so he had barely made an effort, knowing that once Kagome saw him, she would drag him into some human department store…he was obviously going to stick out, and there would definitely be questioning stares…

It was so long since he last got clothes…his shirts were torn, bloody, and too baggy and his pants as well, they had definitely belonged to someone much older and bigger than him…He really needed new clothes…and Kagome was offering…he blushed.

Soon, he felt that calming wave of soothing scents and heard nearing footsteps as Kagome walked over to the bus stop. He was wearing one of his only shirts, red with several darker red stains.

She was going to buy him something much better than those old clothes with so many memories trapped in the cloth…not to mention clothes for winter.

He looked up at her with angry eyes, and she could sense his insecurity. She held out her hand. He blushed and soon grabbed it and together they began to walk to…wherever Kagome was taking them.

"Thank you…" he muttered. "For…doing this…"

She looked at him and smiled. He couldn't believe how happy and excited she was, just to buy him clothes…he was still wondering how he was going to pay her back for all the money she was going to waste on someone who definitely didn't deserve it…Clothes were expensive!

His body tightened as the silent death glares in the eyes of humans and demons alike as they saw him walking in the company of a human girl…his heart quickened. What if someone tried to hurt her…?

Well, they would have to deal with him.

They stopped at a large department store, not even specializing in clothing. He sighed in relief. At least she didn't have the intention of spending thousands on expensive clothing…

She went over to the shirt section and pulled out several shirts. She asked, "What's your size?" but he shrugged, not knowing at all… "The last time I bought clothes I was 13 years old, I don't remember…" Of course he was lying. He hadn't actually BOUGHT the clothes…nor had he stolen them.

Kagome gasped. It had been three years wearing the same baggy shirt…and pants nonetheless…

He blushed. He honestly didn't really care about his clothes…but sometimes he wished he at least had tighter pants, or at least a belt that could keep them from slipping…

Kagome averted her gaze into the mesmerizing amber to the clothes rack where she wondered his size.

"Hmm…I don't know…I don't think this is any good…" Kagome looked at the different shirts, and she sighed. She didn't like any of them, and she didn't think that they had the Hanyou's size, which she was guessing was at least a medium…

He sighed almost happily. He knew this meant she had given up, and decided not to spend any money pointlessly on clothes for him.

…But something in the way she smiled told him otherwise…

He sighed. Oh well. As long as they got home before tonight…

InuYasha walked shyly out of the dressing room in a striped long sleeved shirt. It was a good fit while still being loose enough that he felt comfortable. "How does it look…?" He asked almost inaudibly. Kagome smiled and she made so many different signs of happiness InuYasha felt awkward. "Yes! You look so…!" She couldn't even say how she felt because she would explode in happiness.

_Jeez, what is with girls and shopping that makes them so damn happy? _InuYasha thought deeply as he watched her rush over to another long sleeved shirt. He eyed himself in the mirror, and had to admit, he didn't look bad. It really looked good on him, and it wasn't as tight as it looked on the hanger…It was the first thing he noticed, actually. Not to mention that the red and white colors with the occasional black suited him. And he loved his new pants. They were dark and they were loose and they _fit_. He couldn't seem to get over the fact that they actually fit him. He smiled lightly, but was promptly dragged to yet another store by an all-too-happy Kagome.

The hours ambled on in a similar, if not better, way for Kagome. She had taken InuYasha from store to store, trying on different articles of clothing, from tops to jeans to shoes, and it was all coming so expensive, he almost died when he looked at the expense.

By the time they had reached the winter wear department, he looked like he was about to say something and she could see the expression on his face; a far cry from being ecstatic about this brand new clothing.

She studied that expression, which read "_how am I ever going to pay for all of this???_", and then she wrapped a blue and teal scarf around his neck and smiled warmly. "It's okay. This is my gift to you! You don't have to even THINK about paying me back or anything, ok? You deserve it…"

He sighed and accepted the fact that after four stores of looking and trying on, she wasn't going to give in. And she was wrong on one count. He wasn't worth it and he didn't deserve all of this. But she was going to do this of her own will, regardless of who he was. But for what?

What was she trying to gain, she knew that he could do nothing for her to repay her…so why…?

A part of him even told him that it was a total lost cause and a complete waste of time. Soon, those nice clothes would be spattered in blood and torn by claws anyway. And the stores she took him to always had such narrow spaces to traverse between the racks of clothing…not to mention that the stares that the other "normal" customers delivered unto his memory were none too pleasant. He sighed, what was he to do? He was nothing but a Hanyou, and could do nothing to stop her, to tell her that he did not deserve her polite courtesy.

But everybody, even one as apologetic as him, had a part of themselves that couldn't help but feel relief and happiness. Deep inside, he was so happy that she was willing to do this for him…that she was willing to go through the stares of others in an attempt to provide him happiness, and make him feel wanted…

She looked at him with that wonderful smile. Her hair followed every soft movement of her head, and the light that flowed in through the display window of the store seemed to penetrate the darkness in his mind through the light as it reflected off her profile. He blushed and turned around, facing a display.

"You know…"

Kagome turned to face him suddenly, not even able to grasp the fact that he had spoken. "Y-yes?"

"If you want…you can do something nice for yourself too…if you want…I mean…you've already done a lot for me…" His face felt warm as the words were spoken to her. He always felt awkward when faced with the opportunity to speak with her, but tried not to let the way he was feeling be known to her.

But she knew. There was no lying that could escape his eyes, for amber would always trap everything, whether they were to be truth or lies, joy or pain...

She nodded her head at his request. "Okay!" She smiled and proceeded in looking for something for herself. He followed her and couldn't help but think that what he had asked her to do was stupid. He couldn't pay for whatever she was going to choose, and he was probably making her feel awful, what with all of the time she had already spent looking for clothes for him…

He walked over and found a really cute brown jacket with no sleeves and a hood. There was a front pocket that had a small strawberry design. He looked at the sweater she was wearing. A repeated pattern of thin lines of the colors blue, red, yellow and white…She would look adorable with that. She was looking at a red transparent handbag with a flower on it when she felt hands on her shoulders. She turned and saw InuYasha holding the brown jacket delicately and slipping it over her slim figure. She looked surprised and a light blush crept onto her face as he lightly turned her around so that they were looking eye to eye.

He was lost in his thoughts when he was shoved over by a strong force.

Crashing into a clothes rack as he fell to the floor, his vision blurred over and his head began to ache. He had landed on his ear, which hurt like hell, because the appendages were extremely sensitive. The pain stung and ached and screamed in his head, and he immediately felt afraid. Kagome really was like the other girls, all this was a trick, she was going to sell those clothes she had bought for him, she pushed him and he had fallen and he looked up to see a smug, triumphant face with narrow cheekbones and icy blue eyes. Both relief and fear began to rise in his throat. At least it wasn't Kagome who had hit him…

Koga smirked as he began to smell blood. "Asshole…" InuYasha coughed silently. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, unlike you, I have the right to be here." Koga fired back at him.

InuYasha groaned as the pain began to overcome his senses. Crap. Where was Kagome? He scanned the whole store but she was nowhere to be seen. He looked fiercely into Koga's eyes. "What did you do to Kagome?" He asked.

Koga looked confused. "What do you mean?" But he was immediately outraged. How did this flea infested Hanyou suddenly have the privilege of being with Kagome? She was _**his**_, and his alone!

Koga proceeded to thrash his anger out on InuYasha from behind the clothes rack in order not to cause an unwanted scandal with the public eye. InuYasha didn't scream or move; he was numb to the pain after all these years. He sighed as he began to slip into darkness.

Kagome gasped and stood frozen as the wolf demon walked away with a smug expression from a disheveled Hanyou.

She gasped and ran to his side. "InuYasha, are you OK?" There was so much panic in her voice that it almost killed InuYasha to nod his head. He was lying. This was more than unfair at this point. What right did they all have to terrorize Kagome like that?

"Don't let Koga scare you" he said, looking up at Kagome, who nodded uncertainly. He wiped the trail of blood from his mouth. Other than that, there was no more blood, only dark bruises on his arm. He grabbed a jacket from one of the bags that Kagome had been carrying with her and pulled it over his thin well-built frame concealed by his old shirt. He smiled. At least now there was something to hide inside.

She bought the brown jacket and was wearing it. They were walking home in the sunset, on the golden path and the red sky to InuYasha's "home". He held onto the bags that held the thousands of dollars worth of purchases. And he was urging the sky to remain red instead of suddenly retreating into the darkness…But he was so happy that she had bought the jacket that he had chosen for her.

He smiled. "I'm happy that you really like it…"

Kagome looked at him. "You really have an eye for color matches! I thought that you were colorblind!" She joked. He punched her arm softly. "I'm not a dog, dumbnut." He said.

She laughed. "You're a puppy!" she said amidst giggles and she held his arm and pulled herself closer. "You're my puppy!"

He blushed. "I'm not a puppy…"

Her words would hang onto him for a long time. They were very silly and the sentence was only three words long, and a part of it sort of insulting, but it was the first sentence he had heard in a long time that had referred to him lovingly.

God DAMMIT the sky was getting darker.

"No, really, you really know what looks good with what!" she said, pushing the jokes aside.

"Kagome…" She looked up at him. He looked away.

"Thanks for being my friend."

She blushed. "Thanks for being mine."

They held hands as they walked to InuYasha's home.

"Goodbye!" Kagome said waving, and he waved back. He sighed in relief. A part of him could have sworn that she would have asked to spend the night with him so that he wouldn't be lonely. Oh well, sometimes he was wrong…

Long after they had said goodbye, InuYasha was examining his bruises and letting the cold water of the brook run over it. He knew that in a mere moment, they were going to hurt so much more.

He looked up at the desolate sky. The stars were without the company of the moon and he immediately began to feel weak. _Crap…_

He began to feel the pain of his transformation. His fangs began to retreat into his gums and his ears began to ache and feel as though someone had screamed into them as they began to take human form and slip to the "normal" site. His eyes began to fill with darkness and became a violet color. He looked at his reflection in the water. Yes, the amber was gone, and his silver hair began to fill with ink and become black. His claws began to ache and his hand stiffened as they shortened.

He was human.

The night of the new moon was his most vulnerable of times. He had lost the strength he knew as a Hanyou, and the bruises hurt ten times more than if he had been "normal" tonight. He walked over to the old stained mattress and lay on one side of his body that wasn't so hurt and he couldn't help but cry out. Tears began to stream down his face as the scars began to reopen. He didn't want to cry, he didn't want to feel so weak. But it hurt so damn much! How did humans live like this?

He shivered. The cold affected his body so much…He looked over at the bags that Kagome had given him. He pulled out the blue plaid pajama pants that she had bought him and slipped them on. Damn, she hadn't bought a top for the pajama so he grabbed a sweater and slipped it on. He could still smell the clothes, though the sense of smell he harbored usually was now gone. They smelled so new…he'd never had anything new before…not after the…his birthday.

He caressed the material and looked at the stars, his eyes still crying tears because of the pain of his injuries, which he would endure until the morning.

And yet he was grateful.

"Thanks Kagome."

He clutched tightly onto the material and pressed his face against it. He sighed. It was going to be a rough night.

**END OF CHAPTER SIX**


	8. A Hanyou's Worst Nightmare

**CHAPTER EIGHT: A HANYOU'S WORST NIGHTMARE**

_A.N: I'd like to thank all of you for reading this story. I look at all the hits it has and I smile. It's been three years…_

_Three years…_

_Well, a week ago, I started high school. I was right about one thing: It's just as harsh as I expected it to be._

_I feel like a freak sometimes. I'm in several advanced classes and the sophomores all tease me for being a freshman. I've bumped into some anime fans, but none really care much for InuYasha…well…except one…_

_My biology teacher looked at my jacket, which has a picture of InuYasha on the back and his name on one of the sleeves. "'Inu-washa'," he read teasingly as he walked down my row. _

_I blushed. "Yeah..."_

"_You stay up till two to watch the re-runs?" he asked._

_At this point I was amused that he even knew InuYasha. "No," I answered. "I don't have time anymore…" _

_At this he gave a small chuckle. "Got tired of demons?" Everyone in the class responded with stifled laughter._

_I adamantly stood on my defense, already embarrassed that he was bringing attention to me when all I wanted was to be ignored. My heart was pounding and I answered, "No! I love the show, don't get me wrong…I just never have any time to watch it." I felt a pang of emptiness as I said those words and I felt everyone staring at me. I wanted to disappear; I was so embarrassed._

_He then asked if I liked Fullmetal Alchemist. I nodded. Naruto? A quick shake of the head and a sigh. I really didn't want to think about that show at that moment. I have an on-off relation with that show._

_Then he smiled and stopped pestering me. _

_It's hard to make friends. But its kind of fun remembering moments that were once embarrassing and laughing in spite of it all. It doesn't bother me to have at least SOMEONE who shares my interest in something that no one else talks about anymore. Even if it is my bio teacher…_

_Well, I'm happy that you all at least still read InuYasha fanfiction…it makes me feel better._

_I hope that your first week was enjoyable, and I hope you all make friends…_

_And I hope that you keep reading and supporting this sorry…_

_And I hope that you will forgive me for writing such a long A.N._

_ On to the story. _

InuYasha had washed the blood off of his body. His wounds had already healed. He felt a bit of nausea as he always did when he transformed back into a Hanyou. Like he had predicted, it had been a rough night. He couldn't sleep because of the pain, and he couldn't push the painful memories away from his consciousness. And there was also…Kagome's beautiful, sweet face…he couldn't get her out of his mind…she had accepted his home, the one which he and nature had fabricated.

She bought him clothes, she had accepted the fact that his jobs had harsh hours, and that he could not afford much…but most importantly…

…She had accepted HIM…

The Hanyou.

The outsider.

Its meaning was not so strong anymore.

But it wouldn't be much to his self esteem. It would never change his outlook on life. He still viewed it as potentially dangerous, torture and loathing…

He was still the Hanyou.

But hey, Kagome was his silver lining among the stormy clouds. Nothing could hurt him as much. But that didn't stop him from concentrating on his "mission". Kill the creep that killed his parents.

InuYasha couldn't stand the damn intoxicating scent of blood that seemed always to creep into his dreams. It clouded his mind into a blur; his ability to think straight was altered…

It scared the hell out of him.

He didn't want to feel that feeling of dread anymore. He wanted it to go away, to leave him alone.

He wanted to live his life in peace.

The dull ritual began. He stretched his arms and arched his back to relieve the subluxations and to undo the knots of pent up stress. He took a cold bath in the spring and when he was done, he walked to the paper bags of clothes that he had bought with Kagome. He took out a red shirt with blue trim and white initials and the nice and loose dark blue jeans and put them on. He smiled. He had real clothes, clothes that fit him! He felt so warm…but he was afraid that maybe at school someone would purposely ruin them.

School…

Kagome had promised to go to school with him today. Soon, she would be here. _Man…this is a first…it's like a d--_… he could barely finish the sentence in his mind without blushing.

**[[…I feel happy for you, InuYasha. You've found someone who accepts you for who you are. Not for WHAT you are…** InuYasha could feel a small tint of pride in the "split personality's" voice.

_Thanks._

The "split personality" didn't even scold him for thanking him. He just stayed silent for a while.

**[[…You know you're breaking rule 7,999…**

_I know._ InuYasha cracked a smile at the joke. _But it's worth it…_(There are only 200 rules…)

**[[…Be careful. What if there's a need for Hanyou punishment?**

_I don't care, as long as they don't hurt Kagome._

**[[Let's hope that when they knock you unconscious, they don't do something to her.**

_They'd better hope I don't wake up._

**[[Heh. You know, you remind me of Inu no Taisho…**

_Nah. Why would you say that?_

**[[Well…he was the same way with Izayoi when they met. You see, their love was forbidden, so she had been expelled. He had a child before that, but his wife had died of pneumonia. So…he fell in love with Izayoi. That's how they met. Sure, he was 34 years old, and she was 16, but love is crazy. It does something to you. I'm happy that you're finally getting a break, is all. Happy that some of the pain is being relieved…**

_How do you know so much about mom and dad…? They only told that story to me and Sesshomaru no Nii-san. _

**[[…I…can peer into your thoughts…** The "split personality" said hesitantly.

Really?

**[[Yup. Cool, huh?**

_Don't do it anymore…_

**[[Okay. One more thing…what was that scene where you were forced to sleep in a small stuffy room in a toddler's bed, and whenever you had nightmares, and cried to that Mr. Takashima guy…why the hell did that bastard hit you so much?**

_He was a Hanyou punisher…_

**[[But there's no rule against crying.**

_They're just trying to torture me_.

**[[I didn't like that. I had always wanted to ask you about that.**

_Don't worry, everything's fine._

**[[Fine…Oh! Looookeeee! She's here!**

Indeed she was.

Kagome was standing, leaning halfway over the fence, waving at InuYasha and calling him.

**[[C'mon Yash. You don't want to keep her waiting! I'd nudge you if I could…**

_Just shut up._

**[[Fine…**

"InuYasha! It's time to go!" Kagome smiled.

"In a minute!" InuYasha said, struggling in an effort to put on one of his new black jean converse (which in his opinion cost a LOT of money...) Soon, he was done forcing them in, and ran over to the fence.

"Hey Kagome! How are you?"

"I'm fine," she answered.

He looked at her. She was once again wearing the same ensemble as the other day, including, to his happiness, the jacket he had chosen for her except that it smelled differently. She had washed it and then put on a small amount of perfume, but not enough to mask her beautiful scent…

"How are you? Did you sleep well?" She asked InuYasha calmly.

InuYasha didn't want to answer. He was sick of lying to her. He almost wanted to tell her everything about him, the nightmares he had…the secret of the new moon…his birthday…everything…

Even how he felt about her, how happy he was when he was with her…but so guilty for lying to her.

"I'm fine…" he answered, his heart traveling down into his stomach. He had lied again…He immediately felt a pain in the ribs where Koga had hit him the other day.

She smiled nonetheless and they were ready to walk to school.

For the first five minutes, InuYasha couldn't help but glance over at Kagome. She looked so pretty…face forward, eyes gleaming, and a small simple smile on her face.

"Hey…Kagome," She looked up at him. _Oh wow…_ he thought, feeling a bit stupid. _That was so cool…I love it when she does that… _

"What?"

InuYasha blushed, and looked down. "Doesn't it bother you? I mean, I'm a Hanyou…" his blush darkened.

"No. It doesn't bother me at all!" Kagome cocked her head to one side, and smiled.

_What is it about you? Kagome, I lo--…You're WAY too good for a Hanyou. Who the hell am I kidding?_ He sighed.

Soon, they were there. It was just a normal school day. But this time, InuYasha was opening the doors--with Kagome…

Everyone stared. The hall filled with gossip and rumors.

"Oh gods, what the hell is the devil's spawn doing with that hottie?"

"I heard they're dating!"

"No, she just feels sorry for him."

"Oh. I thought there was something going on."

"It's a crime for a Hanyou to be with a woman…"

"Should we stone them?"

"No, that's just inhuman. I mean, sure he's a Hanyou, but what if we hurt the girl?"

"I still think he should be punished. I mean, shame on him! Hitting on a woman that's a different race than him! Oh listen to me, I sound like an old lady!"

"This is good. I mean a good gossip topic…"

Kagome's face was wrinkled in disgust. "Can't you people find something better to talk about?" she asked angrily.

She turned to InuYasha. "C'mon, I know a shortcut."

"Okay…" InuYasha said, wincing at the comments that were thrown at them. Before he could say much less do anything, Kagome clasped his hand. InuYasha blushed. She was holding that hand. The hand of a feared and rejected HANYOU. He looked at her face. She was not flinching at the touch of his hand. It looked like her face displayed a mixed array of feelings. Joy…pleasure…embarrassment…

_Wow…Kagome, you're like a star in the sky…you're the same kind as millions of others, yet you stand out…_ he smiled. _Maybe things…will work out for us… _

He hoped that none of the rumors were true.

Kagome dragged InuYasha through the stairs (luckily not bumping into anyone abusive), and told him, "Listen, all we have to do is cross this hall, use the elevator, and go down to our first period, which is next to the elevator! I use this place a lot."

InuYasha stepped into the hall, and felt himself being pulled down into a dark abyss. He remembered something…

"Kagome, wait!" Kagome looked at him. "What's wrong…?" InuYasha felt stone cold inside… pain shot through his arms…so cold…torture… "Kagome…I…I think we should go down…"

"Why? InuYasha, are you okay?" she asked worriedly. "I know this hall…" said InuYasha. He knew it. He knew that something bad would happen…

He just didn't expect ending up in the "Hanyou's worst nightmare" hall…

The INFAMOUS torture hall. Who would have known…?

Rumors said that this Hanyou girl's half-brother had forgotten his bag, and she had gone to the school to give it to him. A bunch of kids told her that her brother's room was after the second locker room.

That was the "Hanyou's worst nightmare" hall. It was just an ordinary locker room, but the worst of punks, Hanyou Haters, and Hanyou punishers dwelled there…It truly was a "Hanyou's worst nightmare"…Anyway, the girl took their advice…and went up. She found the hall, and began to proceed into it further, when suddenly; she stopped--dead…

LITERALLY dead.

The Hanyou girl's doctor had found seven bullets on her back.

Seven…

And she had only been 11 years old…

InuYasha had known about this hall for about two years now. It had been there for a long time. He had never wanted to go through there. Kagome was new, she didn't know about the hall. She didn't know. It wasn't her fault. She had just wanted to take a shortcut to math class.

She didn't know that…a Hanyou had died here…

She couldn't possibly know.

"I know this hall…let's get out…please…" Kagome stared at him. There was a pleading look in his eyes. "InuYasha…what's wrong with this hall? It's just a locker room…"

"No…it's the 'Hanyou's wor--'"

Before he could finish the sentence, a click was heard. It resonated in his dog ears. "That's so weird," said Kagome. "…Someone must be opening their locker, but I don't see anyone…"

"Kagome…that's not a locker…" InuYasha trembled. He had heard that sound before, at his stay at Mr. Takashima's house. His mind flashed to Takashima's son's birthday. 20 people aged 10, singing that terrible song, that song that always struck a chord of fear in his heart whenever he heard it. He tried to walk away, but stopped when Mr. Takashima held something cold on his back. He would always threaten him with that weapon. It was also the same weapon that murdered Ms. Shime. It wasn't the shrieking of piano wire, like the kind that had killed Shiori and her mother…That noise that InuYasha had heard…

Was the cocking of a gun…

No… The rumor had been true, they DID have guns, and they DID…kill Hanyous…InuYasha and Kagome slightly jumped when they heard another sound. A laugh…

A cold laugh…

This punk came out from inside a locker. He was wearing this black shirt, baggy jeans, and smelled strongly of liquor and cigarettes. His noticeably died black hair was up to his shoulder, and draped on his head like a cape. He had a chilling smile on his pale face. His eyes were a dull green with red around the edges. Kagome's face immediately changed. Her lip curled up in disgust, and her eyes narrowed.

_This guy's face could scare the crap out of children. He doesn't need a mask for Halloween…_ thought the Hanyou. _It saves money._

"What are you doing Hanyou? Aren't you supposed to be DOWNSTAIRS…?" The punk's voice was low, and dark…dangerous. InuYasha had no good comeback, so he stayed quiet. Fear…Fear had overcome him, like a huge wave, a tsunami…

Kagome could see it in his eyes.

"InuYasha…" She was immediately sorry for even showing him the shortcut now… "You know this place's nickname, don't you Hanyou?" the punk said. "What are you doing here?"

Another punk came out from a locker. "Ooh! Lookee what we have here!" he said, approaching Kagome. "The whore of the Hanyou…" Two other teens rushed out, and pinned the Hanyou's arms behind his back. They thrashed him onto one of the lockers. They kicked him, punched him, squeezed his hands…endless torture…

"A girl! What the hell is she doing with the Hanyou?" asked the punk that had approached Kagome.

…_Pain…no…_

He wrapped his arms around her waist, and lifted her up. "Let's see what we can do to you…"

_Kagome…protect Kagome…_

"NO! LET ME GO!" Kagome kicked and began to hit the punk with her bookbag. The punk barely took notice of this, and, holding her wrists pinned her to a locker. "NO! PLEASE LET GO OF ME!"

"KAGOME!" InuYasha cried as he struggled against the boy's grips on his hands. "INUYASHAAAA! HELP ME! PLEASE!" Kagome begged. The punk held her hands until they were white. Kagome screamed. Where were the teachers? There were classrooms in this hall, why didn't they come out and stop it already?

"STOP IT!" InuYasha yelled at the punk, breaking free of the other two teens' grip, and over to the punk that held Kagome.

In a matter of three seconds, InuYasha had broken loose, approached the punk that was hurting Kagome, and punched him smack-dab on the jaw, reeling him back.

"InuYasha!" Kagome cried in relief. She ran up to InuYasha, and began crying into his T-shirt. "I was so scared…!"

InuYasha's face softened and he hugged her back. "I'm sorry, Kagome…" InuYasha whispered.

"Sorry for WHAT? It's MY fault we're here…" Kagome said, sobbing harder.

"No. I'm the Hanyou here. I will protect you, Kagome…I…I lo--" InuYasha was interrupted by five sharp, halting blasts from behind him. InuYasha reeled forward, eyes open, pain clearly showing.

"Ka-gome…" A thin line of blood dribbled from his lip. Like an angel falling from the heavens, InuYasha slowly fell down onto the floor, blood spewing from his back, onto the gleaming tile.

"InuYasha…no…" she looked down at her beloved, tears blurring his outline. _No…he couldn't be…_

Kagome closed her eyes in remembrance…the first time they had laid eyes on each other at the convenience store…he had to work 5 jobs 24/7…he lived in an abandoned lot…his eyes…his smile…the blood…

"INUYASHAAAA! NO, NO! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING! NOT TO YOU, ANYONE BUT YOU!" Kagome sobbed into his body…but…wait…

She pressed the side of her face on his sturdy chest and heard the steady beating of his heart. She felt his face. He was warm!

He was alive!

"Ka…Kagome…"

"InuYasha…" she said, smiling through her tears.

"Don't cry Kagome…it's…not your fault…that we're…in this mess," he said, coughing. "InuYasha…I'm just happy you're alive," Kagome cried into his chest. The punk that had shot InuYasha from behind laughed softly.

The one that had approached Kagome before said, "Now, where were we? Oh yeah! Right about here…" He began to reach for her chest, but before he could even try anything, she shouted, "NO!" and struck him on the face, knocking him unconscious.

She ran over to InuYasha's side, and began whispering softly, "I'm okay, it's all going to be okay InuYasha…" He sighed and slipped into unconsciousness. Kagome shook him and turned around at the sudden voice.

"You'll regret that, Hanyou lover!" the punk that had shot InuYasha said. He held up the gun, and aimed it for Kagome's chest…Just then, the principal, Mrs. Amai, walked into the hall, her high-heeled shoes clacking, echoing through the hall. The punks scattered.

What she saw was almost unbelievable.

She found Kagome weeping over InuYasha. The white spotless tile had been stained with dark blood. And probably the most touching thing that she saw…in that entire scene…the thing that she would never forget…

InuYasha had five bullets on his back from trying to protect Kagome.

**END OF CHAPTER EIGHT…**

_WARNING: THE NEXT CHAPTER IS LOADED WITH FLUFF! _

_I had to merge two chapters in here…_


	9. Hospital

_**A/N: I am really proud of chapter eight and nine, I helped out a lot in it, especially in the fluff scenes. So I'm really proud of how they came out. Thank you for supporting this story that we have worked on for 3 years. In those 3 years we have been through crap, and this to us, Is a way for us to release it. So thank you a lot .**_

_**High school is awesome, I love it. Today I joined the anime club, it was full as hell! I'm so random, I wears my kitty ears and go up the juniors and seniors and poke em' or hug them. **_

_**So yeah, enjoy BAR! And I hope u guys started school good!**_

_**OH! And please review!**_

_**Sherii-chan**_

**CHAPTER NINE: THE HOSPITAL**

There was a lot of chatter as the students watched how InuYasha was carried on a stretched out to an ambulance. Kagome held tightly to Mrs. Amai as she cried into her chest. Outside there were newscasts trying to find the details. Kagome was the only one who was going to get an answer.

She ran to a doctor and asked fiercely, "Where are you taking him?!"

The doctor couldn't talk much, he just said that he was being taken to the Katsuma Hospital to the surgery ward.

"Do you know his room number? What are they going to do to him?"

The doctor shrugged. "Why should we care about this little shit? It's just a Hanyou."

Kagome looked abashed. "He has every right to breathe just like you and me! I'm not letting you take him if you are going to treat him like crap!" She said in an indignant way, still crying.

"Calm down! We're just going to remove the bullets and stitch him up!" Deep inside he thought, _Ok, this hospital needs the money anyway, let's pull it out of this kid. Just be nice. _"Don't worry, we'll be good to him." She patted her shoulder.

Kagome saw right through the man's scheme. "Then I want to be with him!" She shouted indignantly.

The man looked surprised. He was about to deny her privileges to come see the Hanyou when suddenly a kinder nurse came and said that Kagome could visit in a few hours.

She gave up the argument with this answer and sighed. "Ok…" she said in a small voice. She stood frozen, eyes staring forward and streaming tears running down her face. She clenched her fist as she heard some of the students laughing.

"I hope he dies there…" sneered one person.

The ambulance began to leave with her best friend, her only friend, the friend who had almost died for her…

The people began to go back to their classes. Kagome's eyes felt dry as the wind began to fiercely toss her hair around.

_Why…?_

As soon as the ambulance was out of sight, she fell onto her knees and began to cry onto the pavement. "W-why is everyone like this to him?" She asked facing the sky, speaking in a shaky, disconnected voice. "He…he doesn't deserve this…he doesn't deserve…this pain…" Her shoulders shook with every breath she took.

"It wouldn't have been so hard if you had just stayed with me."

Kagome gasped. "Wh-who's there?" she asked, wiping the tears away.

Koga stepped into the light of the gray sky. "It's cold, Kagome. You really should go back insi--"

"You're one of them Koga!" Kagome shouted at him from her stance on the ground. Koga flinched looking rather hurt. "Kagome…"

"You're one of the people who hurt him all the time! Why?" Kagome asked shakily as she continued to cry on the sidewalk. Koga couldn't answer. "You don't understand Kagome. How do you think it feels when some two different idiots decide to fall in love? It's like having a wolf mate with a fish. Don't you get it? We demons hate humans for that. Humans and demons are only together because of that dumb pact we had to sign. But mating is unforgivable." Koga shook angrily as she told this to Kagome. "Any demon or human who associate themselves in love are stupid."

(Koga obviously isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer.)

"But Koga, so what if he's different…why?"

The steely eyed wolf walked back into the building, not wanting to discuss the matter further. Kagome was left alone to cry on the pavement, her heart confused and stumbling down an emotional waterfall.

When she went home, she was a wreck. Her hair was damp and matted, and she was shivering, holding herself tightly. Her mother rushed up from the T.V. after seeing the state of her daughter. "Honey are you okay?" she asked, feeling her temperature. "You're not feverish…were you out in the rain?"

"Mom, it was only a little bit of rain." She sniffed.

"Well, it was still rain. Go take a warm bath and then warm yourself up. I'll go make you some hot chocolate…" her mother insisted. Kagome nodded softly.

She took a long bath, mostly contemplating

InuYasha was immediately rushed to the hospital's surgery room. Kagome asked to be with him, but was turned down. The Hanyou had said or done nothing for the past hour, and she had been worried sick about him.

_W-what if…what if he never moves again…?_

She gasped at this thought. It was too horrible to think…what IF InuYasha was stuck like that? In a coma…not moving ever again…

_It's my fault,_ she thought. _It's my fault InuYasha's like this… _She closed her eyes and clamped her mouth with her hand as hot tears rolled down her cheeks. Her decision was final. She was going to visit InuYasha at the hospital.

After a long way of walking, Kagome had reached the city limits where the hospital was located. It looked very cheerful and busy on the outside, but…appearances aren't everything…

There was only one word that Kagome could use to describe the hospital: horrible. It was none of the things that the outside appearance displayed. There was a middle-aged man in a gray uniform who was mopping the entrance room with a dirty old mop. There were very few nurses or doctors. There was a sign on the entry desk that read **PLEASE RING BELL.** Kagome went up to ring it, and an old woman that came to the desk asked, "What do you want, child?" Kagome looked into the woman's eyes and said, "Would you please give me the location and room number of INUYASHA TAISHO?" The woman looked through the list, shook her head, and said, "I'm sorry. The patient is currently being operated. Please, wait here," she droned. Kagome turned, and heard the woman say, "Though I doubt you'll stay for long…"

Kagome ignored this, sat down, and waited. She breathed the melancholy air, and looked at the dingy walls. The man slopped syrupy water from the bucket, shook the filthy mop, and took not the slightest interest in poor Kagome. Presently, he shuffled off somewhere unseen to Kagome.

_InuYasha…It's not your fault…you don't have to do this…you don't have to…It's not an obligation…you can quit whenever you want…just…PLEASE…don't die now…please…_

A plump nurse with too much make-up on came into the room, and asked, "Excuse me, is anyone here to see Mr. Taisho?" Kagome eagerly waved her hand. The nurse's face hung in surprise. She cleared her throat, and said, "He's in the surgery ward…I warn you…It'll take 7 hours or so…"

"It's okay…I just want to leave this place knowing that he'll be okay…" Kagome smiled faintly through her tears. The nurse shook her head. "I'll never understand humans…" Kagome almost laughed, but stopped herself, knowing that it was rude. The woman was a DEMON…

_What if…what if they hurt InuYasha? What if they abandon him? What if he…dies…?_

The woman stopped at a sign that said **SURGERY WARD**. "He's in the first door to the right. Sit here and wait." She pointed to a cheap seat that was covered with fake blue leather. The hall was white, and there was a green plant next to Kagome. The hours slipped by, and Kagome nearly fell asleep worrying about him. Tears wouldn't stop coming no matter how much she tried to stop them. _InuYasha…he got hurt because of me…he protected me…it's not fair…_ she thought. He had already gone through too much pain and suffering. She wanted to ease it away. But now…

_InuYasha only thinks about other people…he never thinks about himself…and if he does, he never shows it…it's not fair…He doesn't deserve this at all… _

By the time the stocky nurse walked out of the surgery ward after seven hours of operating InuYasha, Kagome was literally sobbing in a puddle. Her clothes were stained with salty tears, and her eyes were red, and puffy. "You can see him now," she said drearily, ushering Kagome over to the room in which InuYasha rested.

Kagome was pleased with the room's appearance. She had paid 129,577 yen just for that room. The one that was originally destined to be his was dark, damp, suffocating, and cobwebby. Remnants of those who had previously been there hung on the walls as a reminder to the future stay. She had practically screamed at the doctor for even suggesting the room. She had paid double for the room, because the doctor stuck with the cold, dark and creepy Hanyou room. To pay double had gained him the room. _I would have killed the doctor if he had given InuYasha that sty…_ she thought. He was breathing easily now, but yet, he couldn't wake up.

He was no longer in a temporary unconscious state. He was just sleeping deeply.

"Kagome…I'll protect you…"

Kagome gasped.

He was talking about HER in his sleep!

"After all the pain I have caused him…he still wants to be with me…" She began to sob harder.

"InuYasha…I-it's m-my fault…" she said through her tears. "I-I shouldn't h-have shown you…th-that shortcut…trying to get you out of that m-mob…We should have just…ignored them…It's all my fault…"

_No…No, It's not your fault…It's MY fault…I'm the Hanyou here…if I were normal, we wouldn't be in this mess…you wouldn't be crying for me…It's not your fault Kagome… _

"InuYasha…I-I'm just…how am I supposed to l-live without you…? I can't im-imagine it…I-It's too hard…! I'm s-so sorry…I-I can't apologize enough…" Even more tears raced down her beautiful, gentle rosy cheek. Their relationship…It wouldn't work. 5 bullets…Blood…

"I-I think it would've been…b-better if we had n-n-never met…" She said somberly.

_It would torment poor InuYasha even more to be with me…_

"I…I'm sorry, InuYasha. You p-probably don't w-want to be with…m-m-me…"

InuYasha stirred slightly. _No…Kagome, you have no idea how much you've helped me…_InuYasha slowly opened his eyes. "Ka-Kagome…you've made me feel…alive again. Y-you've made me feel things I've n-never f-f-felt before. Happiness, caring…warmth, confidence…and…and…and…love…"

Kagome gasped. He gave her a weak reassuring smile. "I thought I was…going to be empty…all m-my life…but then…" he stroked her face with his hand, and withdrew it softly.

"I met…you…"

Kagome's eyes opened wide, releasing another tear. "B-but…why? Why me? What about y-you? You almost D-DIED back there…I…I couldn't do anything to stop it…"

"Ka…gome…would you please stop saying stuff like that…?" he coughed. "You…being the reason I got shot…is a good thing…be-because you know that…someone cares…about you…I-I wanted to repay you…for your kindness…for warming me up again…for saving my soul…"

Kagome was stunned. _He…he cares for me…_ "Listen, InuYasha? I paid for your hospital bill, okay?"

"N-no, don't do t-that! Please, I'm fine, I c-can pay f-for it…don't do that for me, I'm…not worth…that much trouble…Plea--" He was interrupted by two slim fingers on his lips. Kagome leaned towards him, and whispered, "Yes you are. Because you're InuYasha."

She held his hand up to her face, and nuzzled it against her wet, flushed cheek. InuYasha could feel the warmth of her stained cheek. "Kagome…thank you…thank you for…accepting me…"

She smiled. That warm, gentle smile. InuYasha glanced into her deep brown eyes. Kagome was so beautiful…so pure…innocent…

And she cared for him…

A last tear of relief rolled down her cheek, and landed on InuYasha's hand.

_Kagome…why? You could have anyone…why does it have to be me? There are plenty of other guys out there…why did you choose me?_

…_**You hate the stupid flea infested Hanyou and BEG to god you won't end up like him…**_

_S-shut up…I don't care anymore…_

_Not with Kagome by my side…_

The next day, he was well enough to leave the room, but his legs were weak and he had to be in a wheelchair, which Kagome willingly pushed for him. Together, they went around the dull hospital, down the halls where patients slept in the daytime.

Among some pleasant sights was a father whose family was hugging him tightly. He remembered when his mother had been ill and he had come with his dad and brother to visit her. He had been no less than 4 at that time…

Then they had gone to the nursery ward. Protected by glass walls, inside incubators, newborn babies lay, smiling, crying, reaching up for an unknown magic in the air…hours old, unknowing of the world and its cruelties, not even knowing where they were, and not really caring.

"Aww! They're so cute!" Kagome exclaimed looking through the glass at the adorable, yet fragile babies. She started talking in a kind and gentle voice through the walls. Many of the babies cooed at the sound of her beautiful voice, often interrupted by gentle humming, in which they lay in peace, and some slept without a sound. "I would love to have one…They're so adorable!"

InuYasha blushed. "You'd make a good mother…"

She looked down at him, face crimson at the sweet compliment of the Hanyou. _Aww…_she remembered what had happened to his own mother…The thought of parentage to him was probably more important than his own life. He must have really loved his family if he was going after their killer…

She looked back at him. He was looking at one of the children, a soft yet sad smile upon his face.

_**You'll NEVER have one Hanyou!**_

He flinched at the memory. He sighed. It was true though. He knew that he would never be able to have one with anyone. Nobody could ever love someone like him.

Kagome's glance snapped him out of his remembrance. He smiled reassuringly at the beautiful and sweet person beside him, and they proceeded to go out to the courtyard and relax in the warm sun as breezes played games with the leaves of the surrounding foliage.

Three days had passed, and InuYasha was still in the hospital. Isolated, checked on limitedly by doctors…He was alone. Kagome hadn't come back.

**[[…You know, this is unfair…?**

_Duh…Why isn't Kagome allowed here anymore…?_

**[[You know perfectly why, you need to heal. Hey.**

_What?_

**[[I'll make you a bet. I bet that the doctor'll come in like in 20 minutes, and say you're okay to go.**

_You're on!_

19 minutes of silence and boredom passed, and then, the doctor came in, and said, "Mr. Taisho, we're letting you go. A Ms. Higurashi is here to pick you up."

**[[See? See? I was right!**

"Kagome?" InuYasha rose slowly.

_Kagome's here…_

InuYasha opened the door, and sure enough, Kagome was there, smiling through tears of happiness.

"InuYasha…" she said softly.

InuYasha looked at her happily. He gave a slight smile. "Hey Kagome…"

She looked up at him, and ran over to him, arms extended. As soon as hers and his chests collided, they collapsed into a hug.

Kagome cried into his neck, "I'm so happy you're okay!"

InuYasha was lost, being drowned by her essence…a scent of vanilla and wildflowers overpowered the dreary hospital scents and filled his mind…dulled his pain…his eyes drooped in contentment, and then closed as he enjoyed the long hug, the girl's silky hair under his chin…

"Kagome…I…I…I…" He wanted to say it, to tell her, to let it all out…

But he couldn't.

_What if she doesn't feel the same way?_

"InuYasha…? Can I stay over at your home tonight? Just to make sure you'll be okay…?" Kagome asked.

InuYasha blushed. "S-sure…If it's ok with you…" She wanted to stay with him. She wanted to go to his home! She wanted to be with him! He felt so light, so relieved…

She cared for him.

And he knew he did too.

And yet…would he ever reveal his true feelings?

Would Kagome ever know that he…

"InuYasha? Let's go now…" Kagome squeezed his hand gently. InuYasha's face turned a crimson shade. He squeezed hers back. And it was time to go.

After a while, Kagome and InuYasha were at his H.O.M.E. "We're here Inu. Are you okay?" Kagome asked, helping him through the fence gingerly. "Yeah…I'm fine," InuYasha reassured.

He was embarrassed and sad at the same time…embarrassed because he lived in an abandoned lot…sad because Kagome couldn't see anything better…

InuYasha began to laugh softly. "You know…I want to try something I haven't done in a long time."

Kagome looked confused. "What?"

"Come here, I'll show you!"

The couple came up to a huge camphor tree. InuYasha easily began to climb it. He was already at the top, when Kagome asked, "Um…what are you doing?"

"Come up here Kagome, you can do it!"

"But what if I fall?" Kagome asked, a bit frightened.

"…" InuYasha stayed silent for a bit, but soon, he spoke.

"I'll catch you."

Kagome's blush was almost as deep as his. She nodded and smiled, and began to climb. InuYasha saw immediately that she had some difficulty climbing up. He went down a bit and held her hand tight enough to sustain her, but light enough not to hurt her with his strength and claws, to pull her up. Kagome looked up wide-eyed at the Hanyou as he pulled her up. He was so kind…All he wanted was love…He deserved it too…he was such a warm, caring person…

…He deserved it…

"Kagome…are you okay?" InuYasha asked softly as he pulled her up to the branch and she sat down, her legs saddled onto the branch, her hands holding tightly.

_He doesn't insult people back…okay, fine…he probably does a little bit, but still…he treats both humans and demons with respect…he feels as if he is inferior to them…neither one nor the other…He must feel so alone…_

Kagome didn't know how to feel at that moment. Happy because InuYasha was out of the hospital…maybe sad because he lived in an abandoned 7-11 lot…mad because of the way people treated him…

It wasn't fair.

She stared into his amber eyes…they were smiling through their fearful look…

Hanyou…he had to live with that name, left abandoned at a young age, living in an unused lot, with damn oppressive laws that held him back…

It wasn't fair…

"Yeah…I'm fine InuYasha…" Kagome responded, smiling. InuYasha smiled in relief. She was okay…

They had finally reached the top of the colossal camphor tree. "Kagome…Look around you…"

Kagome lifted her head, and gasped as the wind swept her hair to the left. The landscape surrounded them on all sides. It was breathtaking, and almost indescribable. "InuYasha…" Kagome said, her words slipping, her heart beating with the rush of the wind…

"I wanted to show you this…I wanted to give you something to look at…instead of my pathetic home…this is much better…to look at…I tried…my best to make my home enjoyable to you…but I don't think I did a very good job…" InuYasha smiled painfully.

_He's…so kind…like a little kid trying to make up for his mistakes…he never had a chance to do that in his real childhood…is he trying to make up for it…? _Kagome smiled gently. "InuYasha…How can I hate something that you made?"

This made InuYasha blush. He felt his heart resonate in his ears, and Kagome could almost see the bloodstained dog-eared six year old inside of those reflective eyes, the terrified expression on his small porcelain face. She gasped.

Who was the real InuYasha…?

Was the pain the mask and the strength the truth? Or was it the other way around…?

Kagome could almost see him out on the streets as a lean eight-year-old…a bruise-covered ten-year-old…a hungry thirteen year old…The many false images flashed through her mind like a dream…no, more of a nightmare than a dream…

_No…he has to live HERE…he doesn't want to see anymore dead people…_ she was fighting the urge to pack his bags and drag him over to her house. That would be too cruel…_As nice as it sounds, he doesn't want more than he has. I can't do that to him…_ she said, once again reconsidering offering him a new home. _If his desire is to live here, then so be it. I won't bother him with that matter again… _she said, finalizing her decision.

She suddenly shivered. "InuYasha…it's cold up here," she said, her voice shaking with the cold. "Can y-you please…um…warm me up…?" she said, blushing in embarrassment. InuYasha didn't know how to react. She was asking him to hold her! _Oh god…how am I supposed to do this…?_

He stared at Kagome. Her hair was blowing with the cold wind. Even in the cold, she was beautiful.

In his eyes, Kagome would always look beautiful…

"Your lips are turning blue," he said smiling softly. Oh how he wanted to warm those lips…_But…she wouldn't like that…I know we're friends, but…I don't think she'd take too kindly to a HANYOU…doing that…_ He extended his hands, beckoning her towards him. She smiled gently and began inching herself up backwards on his chest. InuYasha blushed at the touch of her back, and he wrapped his arms around her under her chest.

_Kagome…I know now for sure…that I must protect you…I can't let you get hurt…I wouldn't be able to live…without knowing you're okay…_ InuYasha's eyes drooped, and he fell asleep.

Kagome turned around when she heard the first tiny snore. He looked so innocent as he slept. His thick eyebrows were no longer tense and forced into that stubborn, violent look…his face was peaceful, and she smiled at the cute, sleeping InuYasha.

_He looks…like a little child…_ she thought, her eyes widening in realization. _Inside…is he truly just a child…? Is he stuck in that moment 10 years ago? Oh wow…_

Her eyes began to slowly close, when she felt something in his jeans' pocket. She carefully, as to not wake him, fiddled around until she found what she had felt. She looked carefully. It was three old, almost faded photographs that were all wrinkled and damaged. The first one she held had been torn in half. InuYasha must have put tape on it to repair the damage. It was not the damage that continued to make Kagome stare at the photographs.

It was the contents.

The first picture was of InuYasha's family. On the left corner stood what seemed to be InuYasha's father. He was a handsome, sturdy man with thick "InuYasha eyebrows", and silvery-white hair. It was tied up in a ponytail that looked good and made him look masculine. His irises were the same color as InuYasha's, only his eyes were narrower. His ears were not very dog-like at all; they looked like elfin ears. On his cheeks, there was one light purple stripe on each side. Judging by his looks, he was the demon parent.

Below his father stood a young man, about the age of thirteen. Kagome had no idea who this teenager was, but he was handsome. He had two dark purple stripes on each side, unlike InuYasha's dad, and his irises were also an amber orange. They were as narrow as his father's eyes. He had long white silky hair that was tainted with a little bit of light blue. In addition to the stripes, on his forehead, there was a crescent moon. He also did not have dog ears; his ears were like his fathers' ears as well as almost every other one of his qualities. Kagome sighed as she stared at him. InuYasha's father must have married before, because this boy looks like a full demon…

On the right side stood a beautiful woman that, Kagome guessed, was InuYasha's human mother. Her face was pale, and her cheeks were a rosy color. She had light blue eye shadow over her large eyes, which InuYasha had seemingly inherited. Her irises were a dark brown color, and collected a lot of light in them. Her cherry shaped lips were bright red. Her skin seemed delicate, unparalleled, and her smile was unparalleled. _Wow…she's so pretty…this whole family should be on the cover of a magazine or something! She looked so nice…_

And finally, hugging his mother, comically trying to hide from the camera, was a four-year-old InuYasha. Kagome laughed. _He looks so cute! Man, that is so funny! I've got to bring this up! _

Under them, on the white part of the photograph, were the names of the people. The father was Inu no Taisho, the boy who was InuYasha's half-brother, was Sesshomaru Amaou-Taisho. The mother was Izayoi "Iza" Inishi-Taisho.

The other picture was one of InuYasha and that boy from the other picture. The older boy had his fingers up in a "peace" symbol, and InuYasha had this "stop it!" look on his chubby five-year-old face. They were apparently at Tokyo Disney Theme Park or something, because they were in front of an amusement park ride. It looked a lot like "it's a small world".

The third picture depicted the death of the parents. She almost cried when she saw their lifeless bodies. They had both looked so alive when she had seen them in the first picture…and poor InuYasha, who was only six at that time…he had found them like this…he had seen this…_Why does he walk around with this?_ Kagome thought. Then, a wave of realization swept over her. _Maybe…maybe these are the only pictures of his family left…Maybe the rest of them were destroyed, and a detective forgot this photo of the deaths…And the boy…I think…he's dead too…_

She looked over lovingly at the Hanyou. He had gone through so much pain, it was so unfair. She wanted him to stop feeling that horrible pain… _Sweet dreams…InuYasha…_

And she pocketed the pictures.

**END OF CHAPTER NINE…**


End file.
